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WUTHERINa HEIGHTS. 



!3l Nowel. 



BY ELLIS' BELL. 



C-- 



NEW YORK: 
HABPEB & BROTHERS, FUBLISHEBS, 

FSAMKLIK BQUABK. 

185a 






MARVAftD 
iNIVERSiTYl 
LIBRARY 
MAR S1S41 



I 

( 



WTJTHEEING HEIGHTS. 



CHAPTER 1. 

1801. — I HAYE just returned from a visit to my landlord — the 
solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with. This is cer- 
tainly a beautiful country! In all England I do not believe 
that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed 
from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist's Heaven — 
and Mr. HeathcM* and I are such a suitable pair to divide the 
desolation between us. A capital fellow ! He little imao^ined 
how my heart warmed toward him when I beheld his black 
eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows as I rode up, 
and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous reso- 
lution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name. 

"Mr. Heathcliffr' I said. 

A nod was the answer. 

" Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir — ^I do myself the 
honor of calling as soon as possible afier my arrival, to express 
the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perse- 
verance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange : I 
heard yesterday you had had some thoughts — " 

" Thrushcross Grrange is my own, sir," he interrupted wincing, 
** I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could 
hinder it — ^walk in !" 

The " walk in" was uttered with closed teeth, and expressed 
the sentiment, " Go to the Deuce !" Even the gate over which 
he leaned manifested no sympathizing movement to the words ; 
and I think that circumstance Je!,er mined me to accept the 
invitation : I felt interested in a man who seemed more ex 
aggeratedly reserved than myself. 



4 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

When he saw my horse's breast fairly pushing the barrier, he 
did pull out his hand to unchain it, and then sullenly preceded 
me up the causeway, calling as we entered the court : 

" Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood's horse ; and bring up some 
wine." 

" Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I 
suppose," was the reflection suggested by this compound 
order. " No wonder the grass grows up between the flags, 
and cattle are the only hedge-cutters." 

Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man, very old, perhaps, 
though hale and sinewy. 

" The Lord help us !" he soliloquized in an undertone of 
peevish displeasure, while relieving me of my horse : looking, 
meantime, in my face so sourly, that I charitably conjectured 
he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his 
pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent. 

Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathdiflf 's dwelling. 
" Wuthering" being a significant provincial adjective, descrip- 
tive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed m 
stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up 
there at all times, indeed : one may guess the power of the 
north wind blowing over the hedge, by the excessive slant of a 
few stunted firs at the end of the house ; and by a range of 
gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving 
alms of the sun. Happily, the architect had foresight to build 
it strong : the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and 
the comers defended with large jutting stones. 

Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity 
of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially 
about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of 
crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the 
date, " 1500," and the name, "Hareton Eamshaw;" I would 
have made a few comments, and requested a short history 
of the place fix»m the surly owner, but his attitude at the door 
appeared to demand my speedy entrance or complete de- 
parture, and 1 had no desire to aggravate his impatience pre- 
vious to inspecting the penetralium. 

One step brought us into the family sitting-room without any 

introductory lobby or passage : they call it here " the house*' 

pre-eminently. It includes kitchen and parlor generally; but I 

^ ielieve at Wuthering Heights, the kitchen is forced to retreat 

altogether into another quarter ; at least I distinguished a chat- 



WUTHSBINO HJ&IGHTS. 



ter of tongues and a clatter of culinary utensik deep within ; 
and I observed no signs of roasting, boiling, or baking about 
the huge fire-place, nor any glitter of copper saucepans and tin 
cuHendei-s on the walls. One end, indeed, reflected splendidly 
both light and heat from ranks of immense pewter dishes, 
inter^ersed with silver jugs and tankards, towering row afier 
row m a vast oak dresser, to the very roof. The latter had 
never been underdrawn, its entire anatomy lay bare to an in- 
quiring eye, except where a fiame of wood laden with oatcakes, 
and clusters of legs of beef, mutton, and ham, concealed it. 
Above the chimney were sundry villainous old guns, and a 
couple of horse-pistols, and, by way of ornament, three gaudily 
painted canistei-s disposed along it^ ledge. The floor was 
of smooth, white stone ; the diairs, high-backed, primitive 
structures, painted green ; one or two heavy black ones lurking 
?n the shade. In an arch, under the dresser, reposed a huge, 
liver-colored bitch pointer, surrounded by a swarm of squeal- 
ing puppies ; and other dogs haunted other recesses. 

The apartment and furniture would have been nothing ex- 
trordinary as belonging to a homely northern farmer, with a 
stubborn countenance, and stalwart limbs, set out to advantage 
in knee-breeches and gaiters. Such an individual, seated in his 
arm-chair, his mug of ale frothing on the round table before 
him, is to be seen in any circuit of five or six miles among 
these hills, if you go at the right time after dinner. But Mr. 
Heathclifl* forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of 
living. He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and 
manners a gentleman ; that is, as much a gentleman as many a 
country squire ; rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss 
with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome 
figure ; and rather morose, possibly some people might suspect 
him of a degree of under-bred pride. I have a sympathetic 
chord vfdthin that tells me it is nothing of the sort ; I know, by 
instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays 
of feeling, to manifestations of mutual kindliness. He'll love 
and hate, equally under cover, and esteem it a species of im- 
pertinence to be loved or hated again. — No, I'm running on too 
&st. I bestow my own attributes over liberally on him. Mr. 
Heathclifif may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his 
oand out of the way, when he meets a would-be acquaintance, 
io those which actuate me. Let me hope my constitution is 
almost peculiar ; my dear mother used to say I should never 



6 WUTHEKIN6HEI6HTS. 

have a comfortable home, and only last summer I proved my 
self perfectly unworthy of one. 

While enjoying a month of fine weather at the sea-coast, 1 
was thrown into the company of a most fascinating creature, a 
real goddess, in my eyes, as long as she took no notice of me. 
I " never told my love " vocally ; still, if looks have language, 
the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears ; 
she understood me, at last, and looked a return — the sweetest 
of all imaginable looks — and what did I do ? I confess it with 
shame — shrunk icily into myself like a snail, at every glance 
retired colder and farther ; till, finally, the poor innocent was 
led tq doubt her own senses, and, overwhelmed with confusion 
at her supposed mistake, pei*suaded her mamma to decamp. 

By this curious turn of^ disposition, I have gained the repu- 
tation of deliberate heartlessness, how undeserved, I alone can 
appreciate. 

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that 
toward which my landlord advanced, and filled up an interval 
of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother, who had 
left her nursery, and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my 
legs, her lip curled up, and her white teeth watering for a 
snatch. 

My caress provoked a long, guttural snarl. 

** You'd better let the dog alone," growled Mr. Heathcliff, 
in unison, checking fiercer demonstrations vnth a punch of 
his foot ' ** She's not accustomed to be spoiled — ^not kept for a 
pet.?' 

Then, striding to a side-door, he shouted again, 

" Joseph." 

Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths of the cellar; but 
gave no intimation of ascending ; so his master dived down to 
him, leaving me vis-a-vis with the ruffianly bitch and a pair of 
grim, shaggy sheep-dogs, who shared with her a jealous guard- 
ianship over all my movements. 

Not anxious to come in contact with their fangs, I sat still — 
but, imagining they would scarcely understand tacit insults, I 
unfortunately indulged in winking and making faces at the trio, 
and some turn of my physiognomy so irritated madam, that 
she suddenly broke into a fury, and leapt on my knees. I flung 
her back, and hastened to interpose the table between us. 
This proceeding roused the whole hive. Half-a-dozen four- 
iboted fiends, of various sizes, and ages, issued from hidden 



WUTHEEINO HBIOHT8. 



dens to the common center. I felt my heels and coat laps 
peculiar subjects of assault ; and, parrying off the larger com- 
batants, as OToctually as I could, with the poker, I was con« 
strained to demand aloud assistance from some of the house- 
hold, in re-establidiing peace. 

Mr. Heathcliff and his man climbed the cellar steps with 
vexatious phlegm. I don't think they moved one second ftster 
dian uBua], though the hearth was an absolute tempest of 
worrying and yelping. 

HappUy, an inhabitant of the kitchen made more dispatch ; 
a lusty dame, with tucked up gown, bare arms, and fire-nushed 
chedcs, rushed into the midst of us, flourishing a frying-pan, 
and used that weapon, and her tongue, to sucm purpose, that 
the storm subsided magically, and she only remamed, heaving 
like a sea after a high wind, when her master entered on the 
scene. 

** What the devil is the matter V he asked, eyeing me in 
a manner that I could ill endure after this inhospitable treat- 
ment. 

«* What the devil, indeed !" I muttered. " The herd of pos- 
sessed swine could have had no worse spirits in them than 
those animals of yours, sir. You might as well leave a stranger 
with a brood of tigers !" 

^ They won't meddle with persons who touch nothing," he 
remarked putting the bottle before me, and restoring the dis- 
placed table. '* The dogs do right to be vigilant. Take a glass 
of wine V 

" No, thank you." 

" Not bitten, are you V 

" If I had been, I would have set my signet on the biter.*' 

Heathcliff 's countenance relaxed into a grin. 

" Come, come," he said, " you are flurried, Mr. Lockwood. 
Here, take a little wine. Guests are so exceedingly rare in 
this house that I and my dogs, I am vnlliug to own, hardly 
know how to receive them. Your health, sir !" 

I bowed and returned the pledge ; beginning to perceive 
that it would be foolish to sit sulking for the misbehavior 
of a pack of curs ; besides, I felt Ic^ to yield the fellow 
further amusement at my expense, since his humor took that 
turn. 

He — probably swayed by prudential considerations of the 
folly of oflendtng a good tenant — ^relaxed a little in the laconie 



8 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 



Style of chipping of bis pronouns and auxiliary verbs ; and in- 
troduced, what he supposed would be a subject of interest to 
me» a discourse on the advantages and disadvantages of my 
present place of retirement. 

I found him very intelligent on the topics we touched ; and, 
before I went home, I was encouraged so far as to volunteer 
another visit to-morrow. 

He evidently wished no repetition of my intrusion. I shall 
go notwithstanding. It is astonishing how sociable I feel my- 
self compared with him. 



CHAPTER n. 

Yesterday afbemoon set in misty and cold. I bad half a 
mind to spend it by my study fire, instead of wading through 
heath and mud to Wuthering Heights. 

On coming up from dinner, however, (N.B., I dine between 
twelve and one o'clock ; the housekeeper, a matronly lady taken 
as a fixture along with the house, could not, or would not, 
comprehend my request that I might be served at five.) On 
mounting the stairs with this lazy intention, and stepping into 
the room, I saw a servant-girl on her knees, surrounded by 
brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as she 
extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders. This spectacle 
drove me back immediately ; I took my hat, and, after a four 
miles' walk, arrived at Hea&clifiTs garden gate, just in time to 
escape the first feathery flakes of a snow shower. 

On that bleak hill-top the earth was hard with a black frost, 
and the air made me shiver through every limb. Being unable 
to remove the chain, I jumped over, and, running up the flag- 
ged causeway bordered with straggling gooseberry bushes, 
knocked vainly for admittance till my knuckles tingled and the 
dogs howled. 

" Wretched inmates !" I ejaculated, mentally, " you deserve 
perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospi- 
tality. At least, I would not keep my doors barred in the day* 
time ; I don't care — ^I will get in !" 

So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it vehemently. Vine- 



VrUTHEBINO HEIGHT 9. 



^nr-faced Joseph projected his head from a round window of 
the ham. 

**Whet are ye fort" he shouted. « T' maister's dahn i* 
t'£>wld. QxM, rahnd hy th* end ut* laith, if yah went toh spake 
tuU him," 

'' Is there nohody inside to open the door t" I hallooed, 
responsively. 

'* They's nohhut t* missis, and shoo'D nut oppen't an ye mak 
yer flaysome dins tiU neeght" 

" Why, can not you teU her who I am, eh, Joseph V* 

** Nor-ne me ! Aw'U hae noa hend wi%" muttered the head, 
vanishing. 

The mow hegan to drive thickly. I seized the handle to 
essay another trial, when a young man, without coat, and shoul<» 
dering a pitchfork, appeared in the yard hehind. He hailed me 
to follow him, and, after marching through a wash-house, and a 
paved area containing^ a coal-shed, pump, and pigeon-cote, we 
at length arrived m tl^ large, warm, cheerful apartment, where 
I was £3irmerly received. 

It glowed delightfully in the radiance of an immense fire, 
compounded of coal, peat, and wood ; and near the tahle, laid 
for a plentiful evening meal, "I was pleased to ohserve the 
" missis," an individual whose existence I had never previously 
suspected. 

I howed and waited, thinking she would hid me take a seat 
She looked at me, leaning hack in her chair, and remained mo- 
tionless and mute. 

" Rough weather !" I remarked. " I'm afraid, Mrs. Heath- 
cliff, the door must hear the consequence of your servants' 
leisure attendance ; I had hard work to make them hear me." 

She never opened her mouth. I stared — she stared also. 
At any rate, she kept her eyes on me in a cool, regardless man- 
ner, exceedingly embarrassing and disagreeable. 

" Sit down," said the young man, gruffly. " He'll be in 
soon." 

I obeyed, and hemmed, and called the villain Juno, who 
deigned, at this second interview, to move the extreme tip fji 
her tail, in token of owning my acquaintance. 

" A beautiful animal !" I conunenced again. " Do you in 
tend parting with the little ones, madam 1" 

" They are not mine," said the amiable hostess, moie repel 
lingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied. 

A* 



10 WUTHBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 

** Ab, your favorites are among these !'' I continued, turning 
to an obscure cushion full of something like cats. 

" A strange choice of favorites," she observed, scornfully. 

Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits. I hemmed once 
more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on 
^e wildness of the evening. 

" You should not have come out," she said, rising and reach- 
ing from the chimney piece two of the painted canisters. 

Her position before was sheltered from the light : now, I had 
a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance. She was 
slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable 
form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the 

1>leasure of beholding : small features, very fair ; flaxen ring- 
ets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck ; and 
eyes— had they been agreeable in expression, they would have 
been irresistible — ^fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only- 
sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn and a kind of 
desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there. 

The canisters were almost out of her reach ; I made a motion 
to aid her; she turned upon me as a miser might turn, if any- 
one attempted to assist him in counting his gold. 

'' I don t want your help," she snapped, " I can get them for 
myself." 

" I beg your pardon," I hastened to reply. 

"Were you asked to tea?" she demanded, tying an apron 
over her neat black firock, and standing with a spoon&l of the 
leaf poised over the pot. 

" I shall be glad to have a capf* I answered. 

" Were you asked 1" she repeated. 

" No ;" I said, half smiling. " You are the proper person to 
ask me." 

She flung the tea back, spoon and all; and resumed her 
chair in a pet, her forehead corrugated, and her red under-1^ 
pushed out like a child's ready to cry. 

Meanwhile, the young man had slung on to his persoa a 
decidedly shabby upper garment, and, erecting himself before 
the blaze, looked down on me from the comer of his eyes, for 
all the world as if there were some mortal feud unavenged 
between us. I began to doubt whether he were a servant or 
not; his dress and speech were both rude, entirely devoid 
of the superiority observable in Mr. and Mi-s. Heathcliff; his 
thick, brown curls were rough and uncultivated, his whiskers 



WUTHEEING HEIGHTS. 11 

encroached bearishly over tiis cheeks, and his hands were 
embrowned like those of a common laborer ; still his bearing 
was free, almost haughty ; and he showed none of a domestic's 
assiduity in attending on the lady of the house. 

In the absence of clear proofi of his condition, I deemed it 
best to abstain from noticing his curious conduct, and, five 
minutes afterward, the entrance of Heathcliff relieved me, in 
some measure, from my uncomfortable state. 

" You see, sii-, I am come, according to promise !" I ex- 
claimed, assuming the cheerful, " and I fear I shall be weather- 
bound for half an hour, if you can afford me shelter during that 
space." 

" Half an hour 1" he said, shaking the white flakes from his 
clothes; "I wonder you should select the thick of a snow- 
storm to ramble about in. Do you know that you run a risk 
of being lost in the marshes? People familiar with these 
moors often miss their road on such evenings, and, I can tell 
you, there is no chance of a change at present." 

** Perhaps I can get a guide among your lads, and he might 
stay at the Grrange till morning— Ksould you spare me one 1" 

" No, I could not." 

"Oh, indeed 1 Well then, I must trust to my own sagacity." 

"Umph." 

'* Are you going to mak th' tea 1" demanded he of the 
shabby coat, shifting his ferocious gaze from me to the young 
lady. 

"Is he to have any 1" she asked, appealing to Heathcliff. 

"Get it ready, will youl" was the answer, uttered so 
savagely that I started. The tone in which the words were 
said revealed a genuine bad nature. I no longer felt inclined 
to call Heathcliff a capital fellow. 

When the preparations were finished, he ini^ted me with- 

"Now, sir, bring forward your chair." And we all, in- 
cluding the rustic youth, drew round the table, an austere 
silence prevailing while we discussed our meal. 

I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to make 
an effort to dispel it. They could not every day sit so grim and 
taciturn, and it was impossible, however ill-tempered they might 
be, that the universal scowl they wore was their every-day 
countenance. 

" It is strange," I began, in the interval of swallowing one 
cup of tea, and receiving another, " it is strange how custom 



12 WUTH BEING HEIGHTS. 

can raold our tastes and ideas ; * many could not imagine the 
existence of happiness in a life of such complete exile from the 
world as you spend, Mr. Heathcliff ; yet, I'll venture to say, 
that, surrounded by your family, and with your amiable lady as 
the presiding genius over your home and heart — " 

" My amiable lady !" he interrupted, with an almost dia 
bolical sneer on his face. " Where is she — my amiable ladyi" 

" Mrs. Heathcliff, your wife, I mean." 

" Well, yes — Oh ! you would intimate that her spirit has 
taken the post of ministering angel, and guards the fortunes of 
Wuthering Heights, even when her body is gone. Is that it V 

Perceiving myself in a blunder, I attempted to correct it. 
I might have seen there was too great a disparity between the 
ages of the parties to make it likely that they were man and 
wife. One was about forty ; a period of mental vigor at which 
men seldom cherish the delusion of being married for love, by 
girls : that dream is reserved for the solace of our declining 
years. The other did not look seventeen. 

Then it flashed upon me ; " the clown at my elbow, who is 
drinking his tea out of a basin, and eating his bread with 
unwashed hands, may be her husband. Heathcliff junior, 
of course. Here is the consequence of being buried alive : 
she has thrown herself away upon that boor, from sheer 
ignorance that better individuds existed i A sad pity — ^I must 
beware how I cause her to regret her choice." 

The last reflection may seem conceited; it was not. My 
neighbor struck me as bordering on repulsive. I knew, through 
experience, that I was tolerably attractive. 

" Mrs. Heathcliff is my daughter-in-law," said Heathcliff, cor- 
roborating my surmise. He turned, as he spoke, a peculiar look 
in her direction, a look of hatred, unless he has a most perverse 
set of facial muscles that will not, like those of other people, in- 
terpret the language of his soul* 

" Ah, certainly — ^I see now ; you are the favored possessor of 
the beneficent fairy," I remarked, turning to my neighbor. 

This was worse than before ;' the youth grew crimson, and 
clenched his fist with every appearance of meditated assault. 
But he seemed to recollect himself, presently ; and smothered 
the storm in a brutal curse, muttered on my behalf, which, how- 
ever, I took care not to notice." 

"Unhappy in your conjectures, sir!" observed my host; 
" we neither of us have the privilege of owning your good fairy; 



WUTHERIN.6 HEIGHTS. 18 

her mate i» ^ead. I said she \ias my daughter-in-law, therefore 
she mufft have manied my son/' 

" And this young man is — " 

" Not my son, assuredly !" 

Heathcliff smiled again, as if it were rather too bold a jest to 
attribute the paternity of that bear to him. 

" My name is Hareton Eamshaw," growled the other ; " and 
I'd counsel you to respect it !" 

" IVe shown no disrespect," was my reply, laughing inter- 
nally at the dignity with which he announced himself. 

He fixed his eye on me longer than I cared to return the 
stare, for fear I might be tempted either to box his ears, or ren- 
der my hilarity audible. I began to feel immistakably out of 
place in that pleasant family circle. The dismal spiritual atmo- 
sphere overcame, and more than neutralized, the glowing phys- 
ical comforts round me ; and I resolved to be cautious how I 
ventured under those rafters a third time. 

The business of eating being concluded, and no one uttering 
a word of sociable conversation, I approached a window to ex- 
amine the weather. 

A Borrowfiil sight I saw; dark night coming down prema- 
turely, and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and 
suffocating snow. 

" I don't think it possible for me to get home now vnthout a 
guide," I could not help exclaiming. " The roads will be bur- 
ied already ; and if they were bare I could scarcely distinguish 
a foot in advance." 

" Hareton, drive those dozen sheep into the bam porch. 
They'll be covered if left in the fold all night ; and put a plank 
before them," said Heathcliff. 

" How must I do V I continued, with rising irritation. 

There was no reply to my question ; and on looking round 1 
saw only Joseph, bnnging in a pail of porridge for the dogs, and 
Mi's. Heathcliff, leaning over the fire, diverting herself with burn- 
ing a bundle of matches which had ftillen from the chimney-piece 
as she restored the tea-canister to its place. 

The former, when he had de]>osited his burden, took a critical 
survey of the room ; and in cracked tones grated out : 

" Aw woonder hagh yah can faishion tub stand thear i' idle- 
ness un war, when all on 'era's goan aght ! Bud yah're a nowt, 
and it's noa use talking — yah'D niver mend uh yer ill ways; bud 
goa raight tub t* divil, like yer mother afore ye !" 



14 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 

I imagined, for a moment, that this piece of eloquence was 
addressed to me ; and, sufficiently enraged, stepped toward the 
aged rascal with an intention of kicking him out of the door. 

Mrs. Heathcliff, however, checked me by her answer. 

" You scandalous old hypocrite I" she replied; " are you not 
afraid of being carried away bodily, whenever you mention the 
devil's name I I warn you to refrain from provoking me, or 
I'll ask your abduction as a special favor. Stop, look here Jo- 
soph," she continued, taking a long, dark book from a shelf. 
" I'll show you how far I've progressed in the Black Art — I 
shall soon be competent to make a clear house of it. The red 
cow didn't die by chance ; and your rheumatism can hardly be 
reckoned among providential visitations !" 

"Oh, wicked, wicked!" gasped the elder, "may the Lord 
deliver us from evil !" 

" No, reprobate ! you are a castaway — ^be off, or I'll huit you 
seriously! I'll have you all modeled in wax and clay; and 
the first who passes the limits I fix, shall — ^I'll not say what 
he shall be done to — ^but, you'll see! Gro, I'm looking at 
you!" 

The little vntch put a mock malignity into her beautifril eyes, 
and Joseph, trembling with sincere horror, hurried out praying 
and ejaculating "wicked" as he went. 

I thought her conduct must be prompted by a species of dreary 
fun ; and, now that we were alone, I endeavored to interest her 
in my distress. 

"Mrs. Heathcliff," I said, earnestly, "you must excuse me 
for troubling you — ^I presume, because, with that face, I'm sure 
you can not help being good-hearted. Do point out some land- 
marks by which I may know my way home— I have no more 
idea how to get there than you would have how to get to 
London !" 

" Take the road you came," she answered, ensconcing her- 
self in a chair, with a candle, and the long book open before 
her. " It is brief advice ; but as sound as I can give." 

" Then, if you hear of me being discovered dead in a bog, or 
a pit full of snow, your conscience won't whisper that it is 
partly your fault V* 

" How so ] I can not escort you. They would'nt let me go to 
the end of the garden- wall." 

" You ! I should be sony to ask you to cross the threshold 
for my convenience on such a night," I cried. " I want you to 



WUTHREING HEIGHTS. 15 

/eff me my way, not to tihow it ; or else to persuade Mr. Heath* 
cliff to give me a guide.'' 

'' Who % There is himself) Eamshaw, Zillah, Joseph, and L 
Which would you have V* 

" Are there no boys at the &rm V* 

"No, those are all." 

" Then it follows that I am compelled to stay." 

** That you may settle with your host. I have nothing to do 
with it" 

*' I hope it will be a lesson to you, to make no more rash 
journeys on these hills," cried Headicliff's stem voice from the 
kitchen entrance. '' As to staying here, I don't keep accom- 
modations for visitors ; you must share a bed with Hareton or 
Joseph, if you do." 

" I can sleep on a chair in this room," I replied. 

" No, no ! A stranger is a stranger, be he rich or poor— it 
will not^uit me to permit any one the range of the place while 
I am off guard !" said the unmannerly wretch. 

With Uiis insult my patience viras at an end. I uttered an 
expression of disgust, and pushed past him into the yard, run- 
ning against Eamshaw in my haste. It was so dark that I 
could not see the means of exit, and as I wandered round I heard 
another specimen of their civil behavior among each other. 

At first the young man appeared about to befriend me. 

" I'll go with him as &r as the park," he said. 

'' You'll go with him to hell !" exclaimed his master, or what- 
ever relation he bore. " And who is to look after the horses, 
ehr 

''A man's life is of more consequence than one evening's 
neglect of the horses; somebody must go," murmured Mrs. 
Heathcliff, more kindly than I expected. 

" Not at your command !" retorted Hareton. " If you set 
store on him you'd better be quiet 

" Then I hope his ghost will haunt you ; and I hope Mr. 
Heathcliff will never get another tenant, till the Grange is a 
ruin !" she answered, sharply. 

" Hearken, hearken, shoe's cursing on em !" muttered Joseph, 
toward whom I had been steering. 

He sat within earshot, milking the cows by the aid of a lan- 
tern, which I seized unceremoniously, and caUing out that I 
would send it back on the morrow, rushed to the nearest 
postern. 



16 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

" Maister, maister» he's staling t' lantern !'' shouted the an« 
cient, pursuing my retreat. " Hey, Guasher ! Hey, dog I 
Hey, wolf, hoUd him, holld him !" 

On opening the litde door two hairy monsters flew at mj 
throat, bearing me down and extinguishing the light, while a 
mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton put the copestone 
on my rage and humiliation. 

Fortunately the beasts seemed more bent on stretching their 
paws and yawning and flouiishing their tails, than devouring 
me alive; but they would suffer no resurrection, and I was 
forced to lie till their malignant masters pleased to deliver me ; 
then hatless, and trembling with wi-ath, I ordered the miscre- 
ants to let me out— -on their peril to keep me one minute longer 
— with several incoherent threats of retaliation, that, in their in- 
definite depth of virulence, smacked of King Lear. 

The vehemence of my agitation brought on a copious bleed- 
ing at the nose, and still Heathcliff laughed, and still I scolded. 
I don't know what would have concluded the scene, had there 
not been one person at hand rather more rational than myself, 
and more benevolent than my entertainer. This was Zillah, 
the stout housewife ; who at length issued forth to inquire into 
the nature of the uproai*. She thought that some of diem had 
been laying violent hands on me ; and, not daring to attack 
her master, she turned her vocal artillery against the younger 
scoundrel. 

"Well, Mr. Earnshaw,'' she cried, "I wonder what you'll 
have agait next ! Are we going to murder folk on our very 
door-stones 1 I see this house will never do for me — ^look at 
t' poor lad, he's fair choking ! Wisht, wisht ! you mun'n't go 
on so— come in, and I'll cure that. There, now, hold ye still." 

With these words she suddenly splashed a pint of icy water 
down my neck, and pulled me into the kitchen. Mr. Heath- 
cliff followed, his accidental merriment expiring quickly in his 
habitual moroseness. 

I was sick exceedingly, and dizzy and fkint ; and thus com- 
pelled, perforce, to accept lodgings under his roof. He told 
Zillah to give me a glass of brandy, and then passed on to the 
inner room, while she condoled with me on my sorry predica- 
ment, and having obeyed his orders, whereby I was somewhat 
revived, ushered me to bed. 



CHAPTER IIL 

While leading the way up-stairs, she reccmmended that 1 
•hould hide the candle and not make a noise, for her roaster 
had an odd notion about the chamber she would put me in, and 
never let any body lodge there willingly. 

I asked the leason. 

She did not know, she answered ; she had lived there only a 
year or two, and they had so many queer goings on she could 
not begin to be curious. 

Too stupefied to be curious myself, I fastened my door and 
glanced round for the bed. The whole furniture consisted of a 
chair, a clothes-press, and a large oak case, with squares cut out 
near the top, resembling coach windows. 

Having approached this structure, I looked inside, and per- 
ceived it to be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch, very con- 
veniently designed to obviate the necessity for every member 
of the family having a room to himself. In fact, it formed a lit- 
tle closet ; and the ledge of a window, which it inclosed, served 
as a table. 

I slid back the panneled sides, got in with my light, pulled 
them together again, and felt secure against the vigilance of 
Heathcliff and every one else. 

The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed 
books piled up in one comer, and it was covered with writing 
scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but 
a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small — 
Catherine Eamshaw, here and there varied to CcUkerine Heath- 
difff and then again to Catherine Zdnton, 

In vapid listlessness I leaned my head against the window, 
and continued spelling over Catherine Eamshaw — HoathclifF — ' 
Linton, till my eyes closed ; but they had not rested five min- 
utes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as 
vivid as specters — the air swarmed with Catherines ; and, rous- 
ing myselif to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle- 
wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the 
place with an odor of roasted calf-skin. 

I snuffed it off, and, very ill at ease under the influence of cold 
apd lingering nausea, sat up and spread cpen the injured tome 



18 WUT BERING HEIGHTS. 

on my knee. It was a Testament, in lean type, and smelling 
dreadfully musty : a fly-leaf bore the inscription — " Catherine 
Eamshaw, her book," and a date some quarter of a century 
back. 

I shut it, and took up another and another, till I had exam- 
ined all. Catherine's library was select, and its state of dilapi- 
dation proved it to have been well used, though not altogether 
for a legitimate purpose; scarcely one chapter had escaped a 
pen-and-ink commentary, at least the appearance of one, cover- 
ing every morsel of blank that the printer had left. 

Some were detached sentences, other parts took the form of a 
regular diary, scrawled in an unformed, childish hand. At the 
top of an extra page, quite a treasure probably when first lighted 
on, I was greatly amused to behold an excellent caricature of iny 
friend Joseph, rudely yet powerfully sketched. 

An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown 
Catherine, and I began forthwith to decipher her faded hiero- 
glyphics. 

" An awful Sunday !" commenced the paragraph beneath. 
" I wish my father were back again. Hindley is a detestable 
substitute — ^his conduct to Heathcliffis atrocious — H. and I are 
going to rebel — we took our initiatory step this evening. 

** All day had been flooding with rain ; we could not go to 
church, so Joseph must needs get up a congregation in the gar- 
ret ; and, while Hindley and his wire bask^ down stairs before 
a comfortable Are, doing any thing but reading their Bibles, I'll 
answer for it, Heathclifl*, myself, and the unhappy plow-boy were 
commanded to take our prayer-books, and mount. We were 
ranged in a row on a sack of com, groaning and shivering, and 
hoping that Joseph would shiver too, so that he might give us a 
short homily for his own sake. A vain idea ! The service lasted 
precisely three hours, and yet my brother had the face to ex- 
claim, when he saw us descending, 

" * What, done already I' 

" On Sunday evenings we used to be permitted to play, if wo 
did not make much noise ; now a mere titter is sufficient to send 
us into comers i 

" * You forget you have a master here,' says the tyrant. ' I'll 
demolish the first who puts me out of temper ! I insist on per- 
fect sobriety and silence. Oh, boy ! was that you 1 Frances, 
darling, pull his hair as you go by : I heard him snap his fin* 
gars' 



WUTHEEIN6 HEIGHTS. 19 

'' Frances pulled his hair heartily, and then went and seated 
herself on her husband's knee ; and there they were, like two 
babies, kissing and t&lking nonsense by the hour— foolish palaver 
that we should be ashamed of. 

" We made ourselves as snug as our means allowed in the 
arch of the dresser. I had just fastened our pinafores together, 
and hung them up for a curtain, when in comes Joseph on an 
errand from the stables. He tears down my handiwork, boxes 
my ears, and croaks, 

" * T' maister ncfbbut just buried, and Sabbath nut oe'i-ed, und 
t' sahnd, uh't gospel stlU i' yer lugs, and yah darr be laiking !-« 
shame on ye ! sit ye dahn, ill childer ! they's good books eneugh 
if ye'U read 'em ; sit ye dahn, and think uh yer sowls !' 

" Saying this, he compelled us so to square our positions that 
we might receive, from the far-off fire, a dull ray to show us the 
text of the lumber he thrust upon us. 

" I could not bear the employment. I took my dingy volume 
by the scroop and hurled it mto the dog-kennel, vowing I hated 
a good book. 

" Heathcliff kicked his to the same place. 

" Then there was a hubbub ! 

" * Maister Hindley 1' shouted our chaplain. ' Maister, coom 
hither! Miss Cathy's riven th' back oflf Th' Helmet uh Salva- 
tion, un' Heathclififs pawsed his fit intuh t' first part uh T' Brooad 
Way to Destruction ! It's fair flaysome ut yah let 'em goa on 
this gait. Ech ! th' owd man ud uh laced 'em properly — ^bud 
he's goan !' 

" Hindley hurried up fixim his paradise on the hearth, and, 
seizing one of us by the collar and the other by the arm, hurled 
both into the back kitchen, where, Joseph asseverated, *owd 
Nick' would fetch us as sure as we were living; and, so com- 
forted, we each sought a separate nook to await his advent 

" I reached this book and a pot of ink from the shelf, and 
pushed the house-door ajar to give me light, and I have got the 
time on with writing for twenty minutes ; but my companion is 
impatient, and proposes that we should appropriate the dairy- 
woman's cloak and have a scamper on the moors under its shel- 
ter. A pleasant suggestion — and then, if the surly old man come 
in, he may believe his prophecy verified — we can not be damper 
or colder in the rain than we are here." 



WUTHEEIN6 HEIGHTS. 



I suppose Catherine fulfilled her project, for the next sentence 
took up another subject ; she waxed lachrymose. 

'' How little did I dream that Hindley Would ever make me 
cry so !" she wrote. " My head aches till I can not keep it on 
the pillow ; and still I can't give over. Poor Heathcliff ! Hind* 
ley calls him a vagabond, and won't let him sit with us, nor eat 
with us any more ; and he says he and I must not play together, 
and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his 
orders. 

" He has been blaming our &ther (how dated he ]) for treat- 
ing H. too liberally, and swears he will reduce him to his right 
place — ** 

• • • • • 

I began to nod drowsily over the dim page ; my eye wan- 
dered from manuscript to print I saw a red ornamented title— 
" Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First A 
Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabes Branderham, 
in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough." And while I was, half 
consciously, worrying my bi*ain to guess what Jabes Brander- 
ham would make of his subject, I sank back in bed, and fell 
asleep. 

Alas, for the effects of bad tea and bad temper ! what else 
could it be that made me pass such a terrible night *? I don't 
remember another that I can at all compare with it since I was 
capable of suffering. 

I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my 
locality. I thought it was morning ; and I had set out on my 
way home with Joseph for a guide. The snow lay yards deep 
in our road ; and, as we floundered on, my companion wearied 
me with constant reproaches that I had not brought a pilgrim's 
staff: telling me I could never get into the house without one, 
and boastfully flourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I un- 
derstood to be so denominated. 

For a moment I consider it absurd that I should need such a 
wesson to gain admittance into my own residence. Then a 
new idea flashed across me. I was not going there ; we were 
journeying to hear the fitmous Jabes Branderham preach from 
the text — "Seventy Times Seven;" and either Joseph, the 
preacher, or I had committed the " First of the Seventy First," 
and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated. 

We came to the chapel — I have passed it really in my walks 
l-wicB or thrice— it lies in a hollow between two hills — an ele 



WUTUERINO HEIGHTS. 



rated hollow near a swamp, whose peaty moisture is said t& 
answer all the purposes of embalming on the few corpses de- 
posited there. The roof has been kept whole hitherto, but as 
the clergyman's stipend is only twenty pounds per annum, and 
a house with two rooms, threatening speedily to determine into 
one, no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor, especially 
as it is currently reported that his flock would rather let bin. 
starre than increase the living by one penny from their own 
pockets. However, in my dream, Jabes had a full and attentive 
congregation : and he preached — good God^-what a sermon ! 
Divided into Jour huTtdred and ninety parts— -eadi folly equal to 
an ordinary address fix>m the pulpit — and each discussing a 
separate sin ! Where he searched for them, I can not tell ; he 
had his private manner of interpreting the phrase, and it seemed 
necessary the brother should sin different sms on every occasion. 

They were c^ the most curious character-— odd trangressions 
that I never imagined previously. 

Oh, how weary I grew. How I writhed, and yawned, and 
nodded, and revived ! How I pinched and pricked myself, and 
rubbed my eyes, and stood up, and sat down again, and nudged 
Joseph to inform me if he would ever have done !" 

I was condemned to hear all out — ^finally, he reached the 
" 'First of ike Seventy' FirsV^ At that crisis a sudden inspiration 
descended on me ; I was moved to rise and denounce Jabes 
Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need 
pardon. 

" Sir," I exclaimed, ** sitting here within these four walls, at 
one stretch, I have endured and forgiven the four hundred and 
ninety heads of your discourse. Seventy times seven times 
have I plucked up my hat, and been about to depart. — Seventy 
times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume 
my seat. The four hundred and ninety-first is too much. Fel- 
low martyrs, have at him ! Drag him down, and crush him to 
atoms, that the place which knows him may know him no 
more !" 

" Thou art the ManT cried Jabes, after a solemn pause, 
leaning, over his cushion. " Seventy times seven times didst 
thou gapingly contort thy visage — seventy times seven did I 
take counsel with my soul. Lo, this is human weakness ; this 
also may be absolved ! The First of the Seventy-First is come 
Brethren, execute upon him the judgment vmtten ! such honor 
have all His saints !" 



22 WUTHEaiNG HEIGHTS. 

With that concluding word, the whole assemhly, exalting 
their pilgrim's stayes, rushed round me in a body, and I, having 
no weapon to raise in self-defense commenced grappling with 
Joseph, my nearest and most ferocious assailant, for his. In 
the confluence of the multitude, several clubs crossed ; blows 
aimed at me fell on other sconces. Presently the whole chapel 
resounded with rappings and counter-rappings. Every man's 
hand was against his neighbor ; and Branderham, unwilling to 
remain idle, poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps on 
the boards of the pulpit, which responded so smartly, that, at 
last, to my unspeakable relief, they woke me. 

And what was it that had suggested the tremendous tumult 1 
what had played Jabes' part in the row 1 Merely the branch 
of a fir-tree that touched my lattice, as the blast wailed by, and 
i*attled its dry cones against the panes ! 

I listened doubtingly an instant ; detected the disturber, then 
turned and dozed, and dreamed again ; if possible, still more 
disagreeably than before. 

This time I remembered I was lying in the oak closet, and I 
heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the dxiving of the snow ; I 
heard also the fir-bough repeat its teasing sound, and ascribed it 
to the right cause ; but it annoyed me so much that I resolved 
to silence it, if possible ; and I thought I rose and endeavored 
to unhasp the casement. The hook was soldered into the 
staple, a circumstance obseiTed by me, when awake, but for- 
gotten. 

"I must stop it, nevertheless!" I muttered, knocking my 
knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize 
the importunate branch : instead of which, my fingers closed on 
the fingers of a little, ico'cold hand ! 

The intense horror of nightmare came over me ; I tried to 
draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melan- 
choly voice sobbed — 

" Let me in — ^let me in !" 

" Who are you 1" I asked, struggling meanwhile to disengage 
myself 

" Catherine Linton," it replied, shiveringly (why did I think 
of Linton ? I had resid^Blamshaw, twenty times for Linton), 
" I'm come home, I'd lost my way on the moor !" 

As it spoke I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking 
through the window — Terror made me cruel; and finding it 
useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on 



WUTUBRINOHBIGUTS. 23 

to the broken j^ane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran 
down and soaked the bed-clothes : still it wailed, " Let me in !" 
and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with 
fear. 

" How can 1 1" I said at length. •* Let me go, if you want 
me to let you in !" 

The fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole, hur* 
riedly piled the books up in a pyramid against it, and stopped 
my ears to exclude the lamentable prayer. 

I seemed to keep them closed above a quarter of an hour, 
yet the instant I listened again, there ivas the doleful cry moan- 
ing on. 

" Begone !" I shouted, •* 1*11 never let you in, not if you beg 
for twenty years !" 

" It's twenty years," mourned the voice, " twenty years, I've 
been a waif for twenty years !" 

Thereat began a feeble scratching outside, and the pile of 
books moved, as if thrust forward. 

I tried to jump up ; but could not stir a limb, and so yelled 
aloud, in a frenzy of fHeht. 

To my confusion, I discovered the yell was not ideal. Hast^ 
footsteps approached my chamber door : somebody pushed it 
open Mrith a vigorous hand, and a light glimmered through the 
squares at the top of the bed. I sat shuddering yet, and wiping 
the perspiration firom my forehead : the intruder appeared to 
hesitate, and muttered to himself 

At last he said in a half-whisper, plainly not expecting an 
answer, 

" Is any one here V* 

I considered it best to confess my presence, for I knew Heath- 
clifTs accents, and feared he might search further if I kept 
quiet. 

With this intention, I turned and opened the panels — ^I shall 
not soon forget the effect my action produced. 

Heathcliff stood near the entrance in his shirt and trowsers ; 
with a candle dripping over his fingers, and his face as white as 
the waB behind mm. The first creak of the oak startled him 
like an electric shock : the light leap^ from his hold to a dis- 
tance of some feet, and his ligitation was so extreme that he 
could hardly pick it up. 

" It is only your guest, sir," I called out, desirous to spare him 
the humiliation of exposing his cowardice fiirther. " I had the 



24 WUTHEEINO HEIGHTS. 

» ■ ' ■ - 

misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful nightmare. 
I'm Sony I disturbed you." 

" Oh, God confoupd you, Mr. Lockwood ! I wish you were 

at the ,'* commenced my host, setting the candle on a chair, 

because he found it impossible to hold it steady. 

"And who showed you up to this room?" he continued, 
crashing his nails into his palms, and grinding his teeth to sub- 
due the maxillary convulsions. " Who was it 1 I've a good 
mind to turn them out of the house this moment.*^ 

" It was your servant Zillah/' I replied, flinging myself on the 
floor, .and rapidly resuming my garments. "I should not car© 
if you did, Mr. Heathclin ; she richly deserves it. I suppose 
that she wanted to get another proof that the place was haunt- 
ed, at my expense. Well, it is — swarming with ghosts and 
goblins. You have reason in shutting it up, I assure you. No 
one will thank you for a doze in such a den !" 

•* What do you mean ?" asked Heathclifl*, ** and what are you 
doing ] Lie down and finish out the night, since you are here ; 
but, for Heaven's sake, don't repeat that horrid noise. Nothing 
could excuse it, unless you were having your throat cut." 

" If the little fiend had got in at the window, she probably 
would have strangled me !" I returned. " I'm not going to en- 
dure the persecutions of your hospitable ancestors, again. Was 
not the Reverend Jabes Branderham akin to you on the mother's 
side ] And that minx, Catherine Linton, or Eamshaw^ or how- 
ever she was called — she must have been a changeling*— wicked 
little soul. She told me she had been walking the earth these 
twenty years : a just punishment for her mortal transgressions, 
I've no doubt." 

Scarcely were these words uttered, when I recollected the 
association of Heathclifl* 's with Catherine's name in the book, 
which had completely slipped from my memory till thus 
awakened. I blushed at my inconsideration ; but, without 
showing further consciousness of the offense, I hastened to add. 

The truth is, sir, I passed the first part of the night in" — 
Here I stopped afresh — ^I was about to say " perusing those old 
volumes ;" then it would have revealed my knowledge of their 
written, as w^ll as their printed contents ; so correcting myself, 
I went on, 

" In spelling over the name scratched on that window-ledge. 
A monotonous occupation, calculated to set me asleep, like 
counting, or" — 



WurUERING HEIGHTS. 25 

** What can you mean, by tfdkiog in this way to me P* thun- 
dered Heathcliff with savage vehemence. " How — ^how dare 
you, under my rpo^God! he's mad to speak so!" and he 
struck his forehead with rage. . 

I did not know whether to resent this language, or pursue 
nay explanation ; but he seemed so powerfuUy imected that I 
took pity, and proceeded with my dreams ; affirming I had 
never heard the appellation of '' Catherine Linton" be&re, but 
reading it often over produced an impression which personified 
kself when I had no longer my imaginaticm under control. 

Heathcliff gradually fell back into the shelter of the bed^ as I 
spoke, finally sitting down almost concealed behind it I 
guessed, however, by his irregular and intercepted breathing, 
that he struggled to vanquish an access of violent emotion. 

Not liking to show him that I heard the conflict, I continued 
my toilet rather noisily, looked at my watch, and soliloquized 
cm the length of the night : 

** Not three o'clock, yet ! I could have taken oath it had been 
six — time stagnates here— we must surely have retired to rest 
at eight !" 

'* Always at nine in winter, and always rise at four," said my 
host, suppressing a groan ; and, as I faiicied, by the motion of 
his shadow's arm, dashing a tear from his eyes. 

" Mr. Lockwood," he added, " you may go into my room ; 
you'll only be in the way, coming down stairs so early : and 
your childish outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me." 

"And for me too," I replied. "I'll walk in the yard till 
daylight, and then I'll be off; and you need not dread a repeti- 
tion of my intrusion. I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure 
in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find 
sufficient company in himself" 

"Delightful company!" muttered Heathcliff. "Take the 
candle, and go where you please — ^I shall join you directly. 
Keep out of die yard though — the dogs are unchained ; and the 
house — ^Juno mounts sentinel there — and — ^nay, you can only 
ramble about the steps and passages — ^but away with you — I'll 
come in two minutes." 

I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber ; when, ignorant where 
the narrow lobbies led, I stood still, and was witness, involun- 
tarily, to a piece of superstition on the part of my landlord, which 
belii^d, oddly, his apparent sense. 

He got upon the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, burst- 

B 



i 



26 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

ing, 86 he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable pasdion of 
tears. 

" Come in ! come in !" he sobbed. " Cathy, do come. Oh, 
do— once more ! Oh ! my heart's darling, hear me this time- 
Catherine, at last i" 

The specter showed a specter's ordinary caprice ; it gave no 
sign of being ; but the snow and wind whirled wildly thorough, 
even reaching my station, and blowing out the light. 

There was such anguish in the gush of grief that accompanied 
this raving, that my compassion made me overlook its folly, and 
I drew off, half angry to have listened at all, and vexed at hav- 
ing related my ridiculous nightmare, since it produced that 
agony ; though whi/, was beyond my comprehension. 

I descended cautiously to the lower regions^; and landed in the 
back-kitchen, where a gleam of fire, raked compactly together, 
enabled me to re-kindle my candle. 

Nothing was stirring except a brindled gray cat, which crept 
from the ashes and saluted me with a querulous mew. 

Two benches, shaped in sections of a circle, nearly inclosed 
the hearth ; on one of these I stretched myself, and Grimalkin 
mounted the other. We were both of us nodding ere any one 
invaded our retreat, and then it was Joseph shuffling down a 
wooden ladder that vanished in the roof, through a trap, the 
ascent to his garret, I suppose. 

He cast a sinister look at the little flame which I had enticed 
to play between the ribs, swept the cat from its elevation, and, 
bestovnng himself in the vacancy, commenced the operation of 
stuffing a three-inch pipe vnth tobacco; my {>re8ence in his 
sanctum was evidently esteemed a piece of impudence too 
shameful for remark. He silently applied the tube to his lips, 
folded his arms, and puffed away. 

I let him enjoy the luxury unannoyed ; and, afrer sucking out 
the last wreath, and heaving a profound sigh, he got up and 
departed as solemnly as he came. 

A more elastic footstep entered next, and now I opened my 
mouth for a ** good morning," but closed it again, the salutation 
unachieved; for Hare ton Eamshaw was performing his orisons, 
MOtto voce, in a series of curses directed against every object he 
touched, while he rummaged a comer for a spade or shovel to 
dig through the drifls. He glanced over the back of the bench, 
dilating li^ nostrils, and thought as little of exchanging civiHties 
with me as with my companion, the cat. 



WtTTHBEINO HEIGHT B. U7 

I guessed by his preparatiotis that egress was allowed, and, 
leaymg my hard couch, made a movement to follow him. He 
noticed this, and thrust at an inner door with the end of his 
spade, intimating, by an inarticulate sound, that there was the 
place where I must go if I changed my locality. 

It opened into the house, where the females were already 
astir, Zillah urging flakes of flame up the chimney with a colos- 
sal bellows, and Mrs. HeathcM*, kneeling on the hearth, reading 
a book by the aid of the blaze. 

She held her hand interposed between the furnace-heat and 
her eyes, and seemed ab6on)ed in her occupation, desisting from 
it onlj to chide the servant for c<9vering her with sparks, or to 
push away a dog, now and dien, that snoozled its nose over for- 
wardly into her face. 

I was surprised to see Heathcliff there also. He stood by the 
fire, his back toward me, just finishing a stormy scene to poor 
Zillah, who ever and anon interrupt^ her labor to pluck up 
the comer of her apron, and heave an indignant groan. 

** And you, you worthless — " he broke out as I entered, 
turning to his daughter-in-law, and employing an epithet as 
harmless as duck, or sheep, but generally represented by a 
dash. 

" There you are at your idle tricks again ! The rest of them 
do earn their bread — ^you live cm my charity ! Put your trash 
away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the 
plague of having you eternally in my idght — do you hear, dam- 
nable jade V* 

" I'll put my trash away, because you can make me if I re- 
fuse," answered the young lady, closing her book, and throwing 
it on a chair. ** But I'll not do any thing, though you should 
Bwear your tongue out, except what I please I" 

Heathdiff limd his hand, and the speaker sprang to a safer 
distance, obviously acquainted with its weight. 

Having no desire to be entertained by a cat^and dog combat, 
I stepped forward briskly, as if eager to partake the warmth of 
the hearth, and innocent of aay knowledge of the interrupted 
dispute. Each had enough decorum to suspend further hostili 
ties ; Heathclifi* placed his fists out of temptation, in his pock- 
ets : Mrs. ^eathclifi^ curled her lip, and walked to a seat far off, 
where she kept her word by playing the part of a statue during 
the remainder of my stay. 

That was not long. I declined joining their breakfiuit, and, 



26 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

at the first gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of escaping into 
the free air, now clear, and still, and cold as impalpable ice. 

My landlord hallooed for me to stop, ere I reached the bottom 
of the garden, and offered to accompany me across the moor. 
It was well he did, for the whole hill-baok was one billowy, 
white ocean ; the swells and falls not indicating corresponding 
rises and depressions in the ground — ^many pits» at least, were 
filled to a level, and entire ranges of mounds, the refuse of the 
quarries, blotted from the chart which my yesterday's walk left 
pictured in my mind. 

I had remarked on one side of the road, at intervals of six 
or seven yards, a line of uptight stones, continued through the 
whole length of the barren : these were erected and daubed 
with lime, on purpose to serve as guides in the dark, and also 
when a fall, like the present, confounded the deep swamps on 
either hand with the firmer path: but, excepting a dirty dot 
pointing up, here and there, all traces of their existence .had 
vanished ; and my companion found it necessary to warn me 
frequently to steer to the right, or left, when I imagined I was 
following correctly the windings of the road. 

We exchanged little conversation, and he halted at the en- 
trance of Thrushcross park, saying I could make no error there. 
Our adieus were limited to a hasty bow, and then I pushed for- 
ward, trusting to ray own resources, for the porter's lodge is un 
tenanted as yet 

The distance from the g^te to the Grange is two miles : I 
believe I managed to make it four, what with losing myself 
among the trees, and sinking up to the neck in snow — a predic- 
ament which only those who have experienced it can appreciate. 
At any rate, whatever were my wanderings, the clock chimed 
twelve as I entered the house ; and that gave exactly an hour 
for every mile of the usual way fix>m Wuttiering Heights. 

My human fixture and her satellites rushed to welcome me, 
exclaiming, tum«ltuously, they had completely given me up ; 
every body conjectured that I perished last night ; and they were 
wondering how they must set about the search for my remains. 

I bid them be quiet, now that they saw me returned ; and, 
benumbed to my very heart, I dragged up-stairs, whence, after 
putting on dry clothes, and pacing a considerable time to and 
fro to restore the animal heat, I am adjourned to my study, feeble 
as a kitten — almost too much so to enjoy the cheerful fire and smo- 
king coffee which the servant has prepared for my refi-eshment 



CHAPTER IV. 

What vain weathercocks we are! I, who had determined 
to hold myself independent of all social intercourse, and thanked 
my stars that at length I had lighted on a spot where it was 
next to impracticahle. I, weak wretch, after maintaining till 
dusk a struggle' with low spirits and solitude, was finally com- 
pelled to strike my colors ; and, under pretense of gaining infor- 
mation concerning the necessities of my establishment, I desired 
Mrs. Dean, when she brought in supper, to sit down while I 
ate it, hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip, and 
either rouse me to animation, or lull me to sleep by her talk. 

" You have lived here a considerable time," I commenced ; 
" did you not say sixteen years V 

"Eighteen, sir; I came when the mistress was married, to 
wait on her; after she died the master retained me for his 
housekeeper." 

" Indeed." 

There ensued a pause. She was not a gossip, I feared, un- 
less about her own affairs, and these could hardly interest me. 

However, having studied for an interval, with a fist on either 
knee, and a cloud of meditation over her ruddy countenance, 
she ejaculated, 

" Ah, times are gi-eatly changed since then !" 

" Yes," I remarked* " you've seen a good many alterations, I 
suppose V* 

" I have : and troubles too," she said. 

" Oh, I'll turn the talk on my landlord's family !" I thought 
to myself. " A good subject to start — and that pretty girl— • 
widow — I should like to know her history ; whether she be a 
native of the country, or, as is more probable, an exotic that the 
suily indigenae will not recognize for kin." 

With this intention I asked Mrs. Dean why Heathcliff let 
Thrushcross Grange, and preferred living in a situation and 
residence'so much inferior. 

" Is he not rich enough to keep the estate in good order V* 
I inquired. 

"Rich sir!" she returned. "He has nobody knows what 



30 WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS. 

money, and every year it increases. Yes, yes, he's rich enough 
to live in a finer house than this, but he's very near— -close- 
handed ; and if he had meant to flit to Thrushcross Grrange, as 
soon as he heard of a good tenant, he could not have borne 
to miss the chance of getting a few hundreds more. It is 
strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the 
world!" 

" He had a son, it seems 1" 
' ** Yes, he had one — ^he is dead." 

" And that young lady, Mrs. Heathcliff, b his widow !" 

"Yes." 

" Where did she come from originally 1" 

" Why, sir, she is my late master's daughter ; Catherine Lin- 
ton was her maiden name. I nursed her, poor thing ! I did 
wish Mr. Heathcliff would remove here, and then we might 
have been together again." 

" What, Catherine Linton !" I exclaimed, astonished. But 
a minute's reflection convinced me it was not my ghostly Cath- 
erine. ** Then," I continued, " my {predecessor's name vwui 
Linton 1" 

"It was." 

" And who is that Eamshaw, Hareton Eamshaw, who Hves 
with Mr. Heathcliff t are they relations V* 

" No 5 he is the late Mrs. Linton's nephew." 

" The young lady's cousin then !" 

" Yes ; and her husband was her cousin also— one on the 
mother's — the other on the father's side — ^Heathcliff married 
Mr. Linton's sister." 

"I see the house at Wuthering Heights has 'Samshaw* 
carved over the front door. Are they an old family V* 

V Very old, sir ; and Hareton is the last of them, as our Miss 
Cathy is of us — ^I mean, of the Lmtons. Have you been, to 
Wuthering Heights f — ^I beg pardon for asking, but I should 
like to hear how she is !" 

"Mrs. Heathcliff] she looked very well, and very hand- 
some ; yet, I think, not very happy." 

"Oh dear, I don't wonder!" And how did you like the 
master]" 

" A rough fellow, rather, Mrs. Dean. Is not that his char- 
acter?" 

" Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone I The less 
you meddle with him the better." 



WUTHERIN6HBIOHT8. 81 

** He must have had some ups and downs in life to make bim 
such a churL Do you know any thing of his history %** 

** It's a cuckoo's, sii* ; I know all about it, except where he 
was bom, and who were his parents, and how he got his money 
at first — and Hareton has be^n cast out like an unfledged dun- 
nock — the unfortunate lad is the only one in aU this parish that 
does not guess how he has been cheated!*' 

" Well, Mrs, Dean, it will be a charitable deed to tell me 
something of my neighbors. — ^I ieeiL I shall not rest, if I go to 
bed; so be good enough to sit and chat an hour." 

"Oh, certainly, sir! FU just fetch a little sewing, and 
then I'U sit as long as you please but you've caueht cold, I 
saw you shivering, and you must have some gruel to drive it 
out." 

The worthy woman bustled off; and I crouched nearer the 
fire : my head felt hot, and the rest of me chill ; moreover I was 
excited, almost to a pitch of foolishness, through my nerves and 
brain. This caused me to feel, not uncomfortable, but rather 
fearfiil, as I am still, of serious effects from the incidents of to 
day and yesterday. 

She returned presently, bringing a smoking basin, and a 
basket of work, and having placed the former on die hob, 
drew in her seat, evidently pleased to find me so companion- 
able. 

Before I came to live here,—- she commenced, waiting no 
further invitation to her story, — I was almost always at Wu- 
thering Heights, because my mother had nursed Mr. Rindley 
Eamshaw, that was Hareton's father, and I got used to playing 
with the children, I ran errands too, and helped to make hay, 
and hung about the farm ready for any thing that any body 
would set me to. 

One fine summer morning — ^it was the beginning of harvest 
I remember — Mr. Eamshaw, the old master, came down stain 
dressed for a journey, and after he had told Joseph what was to 
be done during the day, he turned to Hindley, and Cathy, and 
me— for I sat eating my porridge with them, and he said, 
speaking to his son, 

" Now my bonny man, I'm going to Liverpool to-day, What 
shall I bring you ? You may choose what you like, only let it 
DO little, fi>r I shall walk there and back, sixty miles each way, 
that is a long spell !" 

Hindley named a fiddle, and then he asked Miss Cathy ; she 



32 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

was hardly six years old, but she could ride any horse in the 
stable, and she chose a whip. 

He did not forget me, for he had a kind heart, though he 
was rather severe sometimes. He promised to bring me a 
pocketful of apples and pears, and then he kissed his childrer 
good bye, and set off. 

It seemed a long while to us all, the three days of his ab- 
sence, and often did little Cathy ask when he would be home ; 
Mrs, Eamshaw expected him by supper-time on the third 
evening, and she put the meal hour off after hour ; there were 
no signs of his coming, however, and at last the children got 
tired of running down to the gate to look ; then it grew dark, 
she would have had them to bed, but they begged sadly to be 
allowed to stay up ; and just about eleven o'clock, the door-latch 
was raised quietly, and in stept the master. He threw himself 
into a chair, laughing and groaning, and bid them all stand off, 
for he was nearly kHled, he would not have such another walk 
for the three kingdoms, 

" And at the end of it, to be flighted to death !" he said, 
opening his great coat, which he held bundled up in his arms, 
" See here, wife, I was never so beaten with any thing in my 
life ; but you must e'en take it as a gift of God, though it's as 
dark almost as if it came from the devil." 

We crowded round, and over Miss Cathy's head I had a 
peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child, big enough both to 
walk and talk — ^indeed its face looked older than Catharine's — 
yet, when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and re- 
peated over and over again, some gibberish tjaat nobody could 
understand. I was fiightened, and Mrs. Eamshaw was ready 
to fling it out of doors ; she did fly ip, asked how he could 
fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house, when they had 
their own bairns to feed and fend for 1 IJVTiat he meant to do 
vnth it, and whether he were mad 1 

The master tried to explain the matter, but he was really 
naif dead with fatigue, and all that I could make out, amongst 
her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, 
and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he 
picked it up, and inquired for his owner. Not a soul knew to 
whom it belonged, he said, and his money and time being both 
limited, he thought it better to take it home with him at once, 
than run into vain expenses there, because he was determined 
he would not leave it as he found it. 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 33 

Well, the conclusion was that my mistress grumbled herself 
calm ; and Mr. Eamshaw told me to wash it, and give it clean 
things, and let it sleep with the children. 

Hindley and Cathy contented themselves with looking and 
listening till peace was restored, then both began searching 
their father's pockets £>r the presents he had promised them. 
The former wxis a boy c^ £:)urteen, but when he drew out what 
had been a fiddle^ crushed to morsels in the great coat, he 
blubbered aloud; and Cathy, when she learned the master had 
lost her whip in attending on the stranger, showed her humor 
by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing, earning for 
her pains a sound blow from her rather, to teach her cleaner 
manners. 

They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in 
dieir room, and I had no more sense, so I put it on the landing 
of the^ stairs, hoping it might be gone on the morrow. By 
chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. 
Eamshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. 
Inquiries were made as to how it got there. I was obliged to 
confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity 
was sent out of the house. 

This was Heathdiff's first introduction to the family. On 
coming back a few days afterwards, for I did not consider my 
banishment perpetual, I found they had christened him " Heath* 
chS.*' It was the name of a son who died in childhood, and it 
has served him ever since both for Christian and surname. 

Miss Cathy and he were now very thick ; but Hindley hated 
him, and to say the truth I did the same, and we plagued and 
went on with him shamefully, for I was'nt reasonable enough 
to feel my injustice, and the mistress never put in a word on his 
behalf when she saw him wronged. 

He seemed a sullen, patient child ; hardened, perhaps, to 
ill-treatment ; he would stand Hindley's blows without winking 
or shedding a teai*, and my pinches moved him only to draw in 
a breath, and open his eyes as if he had hurt himself by acci 
dent, and nobody was to blame. 

This endurance made old Eamshaw furious when he dis- 
covered his son persecuting the poor fatherless child, as he 
called him. He took to Heathclitt strangely, believing all he 
said (for that matter, he said precious little, and generally the 
truth), and petting him up far above Cathy, who was too mis- 
chievo|^ and wayward for a favorite. 

B* 



84 WUTHERIN6HEIOHT8. 

So, from the very beginnings be bred bad feeling in tbe bouse ; 
and at Mrs. Eamsbaw's deatb, wbicb happened in less than . 
two years after, the young master had learned to regard his 
fikther as ^n oppressor rather than a fiiend, and Heathcliff as a 
usurper of his parent's affections, and his privileges, and he 
grew bitter with brooding over these injuries. 

I sympathized awhile, but when the children fell ill of the 
measles, and I had to tend thena, and take on me the cares of 
a woman at once, I changed my ideas. Heathcliff was dan- 
geix>u8ly sick, and while he lay at the worst he would have me 
constantly by his pillow ; I suppose he felt I did a good deal 
for him, and he had'nt wit enough to guess that I was com- 
pelled to do it. However, I will say this, he was the quietest 
child that ever nurse watched over. The difference between 
him and the others forced me to be less partial ; Cathy and her 
brother harassed me terribly, he was as uncomplaining as a lamb ; 
though hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble. 

He got through, and the doctor affirmed it was in a great 
measure owing to me, and praised me for my care, I v\ras vain 
of his commendations, and softened toward the being by whose 
means I earned them, and thus Hindl^ lost his last ally ; still I 
could'nt dote on Heathcliff, and I wondered often what my 
master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy, who never, to 
my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude. 
He was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible, 
though knovring perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and 
conscious he had only to speak, and all the house would be 
obliged to bend to his wishes. 

As an instance, I remember Mr. Eamshaw once bought a 
couple of colts at the parish fair, and gave the lads each one. 
Heathcliff took the handsomest, but it soou fell lame, and when 
he discovered it he said to Hindley, 

" You must exchange horses with me ; I don't like mine, 
and, if you won't, I shafi tell your father of the three thrashing 
you've given me this week, and show him my arm, which is 
black to the shoulder." 

Hindley put out his tongue, and cuffed him over the ears. 

" You had better do it at once," he persisted, escaping to tbe 
porch (they were in the stable), " you will have to, and if T 
ipeak of these blows you'll get them, again with interest." 

"Off, dog!" cried Hindley, threatening him vrith an iron 
weight, used for weighing potatoes and hay. % 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 35 

•* Throw it," he replied, standing still, " and then I'll tell how 
you boasted that you would turn me out of doors as soon as he 
died, and see whether he will not turn you out directly." 

Hindley threw it hitting him on the breast and down he fell, 
but staggered up immediately, breathless and white, and had 
not I prevented it he would have gone just so to the master, 
and got full revenge by letting his condition plead for him, in- 
timating who had caused it 

" Tale my colt, gipsy, then!" said young Earbshaw, ** and 
I pray that he may break your neck, take him, and be damned, 
you beggarly interloper ! and wheedle my father out of all he 
has, only afterward show him what you are, imp of Satan — and 
take that, I hope he'll kick out your brains !" 

Heathcliffhad gone to loose (Le beast, and shift it to his own 
stall — ^he was passing behind it, when Hindley finished his 
speech by knocking him under its feet, and without stopping to 
examine whether lus hopes were fulfilled, ran away as fast as 
he coukL 

I was surprized to witness how coolly the child gathered 
himself up, and went on with his intention, exchanging saddles 
and all ; and then sitting down on a bundle of hay to overcome 
the qualm which the violent blow occasioned, before he entered 
the house. 

I persuaded him easily to let me lay the blame of his bruises 
on die horse ; he minded Httle what tale was told, since he had 
what he wanted. He complained so seldom, indeed, of such 
stirs as these^ that I really thought him not vindictive. — -I was 
deceived, completely, as you will hear. 



CHAPTER V. 

In the course of time Mr. Earnshaw began to fail. He bad 
been active and healthy, yet his sti'engtb Idn; him suddenly ; and 
when he was confined to the chimney-comer he grew grievously 
irritable. A nothing vexed him, and suspected slights of his 
authority nearly threw him into fits. 

This was especially to be remarked if any one attempted to 
impose upon, or domineer over his favorite ; he was painfully 
jealous lest a word should be spoken amiss to him, seeming to 
have got into his head the notion that, because he liked Heath- 
cliff, all hated, and longed to do him an ill-turn. 

It was a disadvantage to the lad, for the kinder among us did ' 
not wish to fret the master, so we humored his partiality ; and 
that humoring was rich nourishment to the child's pride and 
black temper. Still it became in a manner necessary ; twice, 
or thrice, Hindley's manifestations of scorn, while his father was 
near, roused the old man to a fiiry. He seized his stick to strike 
him, and shook with rage that he could not do it 

At last our curate (we had a curate then, who made the living 
answer by teaching the little Lintons and Eamshaws, and farm- 
ing his bit of land himself), he advised that the young man should 
be sent to college, and Mr. Earnshaw agreed, though witii a 
heavy spirit, for he said — 

'/ Hindley was naught, and would never thrive as where he 
wandered." 

I hoped heartily we should have peace now. It hurt me to 
think the master should be made uncomfortable by his own good 
deed. I fancied the discontent of age and disease arose from 
his family disagreements, as he. would have it that it did— ^really 
you know, sir, it was in his sinking firame. 

We might have got on tolerably, notwithstanding, but for two 
people— Miss Cathy, and Joseph the servant ; you saw him, I 
dare say, up yonder. He was, and is yet, most likely, tiie weari- 
somest self-righteous Pharisee tiiat ever ransacked a Bible to 
rake the promises to himself, and fling the curses on his neigh- 
bors. By his knack of sermonizing and pious discoursing, 
he contrived to make a great impression on Mr. EamihaWi 



WUTHBRINO HEIGHT S# 87 

and the more feeble the master became^ the more influence he 
gained. 

He was relentless in worrying him about his soul's concerns, 
and about ruling his children rfgidly. He encouraged him to 
regard Hindley as a reprobate ; and, night after night, he regu 
larly grumbled out a long string of tales against Heatbclifif and 
Cadierine ; always minding to flatter Eamshaw's weakness by 
heaping the heaviest blame on the last 

Certainly, she had ways with her such as I never saw a child 
take up before ; and she put all of us past our patience fifty 
times and oft;ener in a day : from the hour she came down stairs, 
till the hour she went to bed, we had not a minute's security that 
she would'nt be in mischief. Her ^irits were always at high- 
water mark, her tongue always going — singing, laughing, and 
plaguing every body who would not do the same. A wild, 
wicked slip she was^ — ^but she had the bonniest eye, and sweetest 
smile, and lightest foot in the parish ; and, after all, I believe she 
meant no harm ; for, when once she made you cry iu good earn- 
est, it seldom happened that she would not keep you company ; 
and oblige you to be quiet that you might comfort her. 

She was much too fond of Heathclifil The greatest pun- 
ishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate 
from him ; yet, she got chided more than a;ny of us on his ac- 
count. 

In play, she liked exceedingly to act the little mistress ; using 
her hands freely, and commanding her companions : she did so 
to me, but I would not bear slapping and ordering ; and so I let 
her know. * 

Now MrT-'Eamshaw did not understand jokes from his chil- 
dren : he had always been strict and grave with them ; and 
Catharine, on her part, had no idea why her father should be 
croaser and less patient in his ailing condition, than he was in 
his prime. 

His peevish reproofs wakened in her a naughty delight to 
provoke him ; she was never so happy as when we were all 
scolding her at once, and she defying us with her bold, saucy 
look, and her ready words; turning Joseph's religious curses 
into ridicule, baiting me, and doing just what her father hated 
most ; showing how her pretended insolence, which he thought 
real, had more power over Heathclifl* than his kindness ; how 
the boy would do he^ bidding in any thing, and his only when 
it suited his own inclination. 



38 ^.WUTHERINO HEIGHTS^ 

After behaving as badly as possible all day, «he sometimes 
came fondling to make it up at mAu 

" Nay, Cadiy," the old man would say, " I can not love thee ; 
thou'rt worse than thy brother. Go, say thy prayers, child, and 
ask God's pardon. I doubt thy modier and 1 must rue that we 
ever rearea thee !" • . 

That made her cry, at first ; and then, being repulsed con* 
tinually hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to say she 
was sorry for her ^ults, and beg to be forgiven. 

But the hour came at last, that ended Mr. Eamshaw's trou- 
bles on earth. He died quietly in his chair one October evening, 
seated by the firenside. 

A high wind blustered round the house, and roared in the 
chimney : it sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold, and 
we were all together — ^I, a little removed from the hearth, busy 
at my knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near the table (for 
the servants generally sat in the house then, after their work 
was done). Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still ; - 
she leaned against her father's knee, and Heathdiff was lying 
}>n the floor with his head in her Is^. 

I remember the master, before he fell into a doze, stroking 
her bonny hair — it pleased him rarely to see her gentle*— and 
saying — 

" why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy V* 

And she turned her fiice up to his, and laughed, and answered, 

" Why can not you always be a good man, father V 

But as soon as she saw him vexed again, she kissed his hand, 
and said she would sing him to sleep. She began singing very 
low, till his fingers dropped from hers, and hu head sank on his 
breast. Then I told her to hush, and not stir, for fear she should 
wake him. We all kept as mute as mice a fiill half-hour, and 
should have done longer, only Joseph, having finished his chap- 
ter, got up and said that he must rouse the master for prayers 
and bed. He stepped forward, and called him by name, and 
touched his shoulder, but he would not move — so he took the 
candle and looked at him. 

I thought there was something wrong as he set down the 
light ; and seizing the children each by an arm, whispered them 
to ** frame up-stairs, and make little din — ^they might pray alone 
that evening — he had summut to do." 

" I shall bid father good-night first," said Catherine, putting 
her arms round his nedc, before we could hinder her. 



WUTHEEING HEIGHT B. 



The poor thing discovered her loss direcdy-^flhe Bcreamed 
out — 

"CMi, he's dead, Heathcliff! he's dead!" 

And they both set up a heart-breaking cry. 

I joined my MT&il to theirs^ loud and Intter ; but Joseph asked 
what we could be thinking of, to roar in that way over a saint in 
Heaven. 

He told me to put on my cloak and run to Gimmerton for the 
doctor and the parson. I could not guess the use that either 
would be oC then. Howevever, I went, through vnnd and rain, 
and brought one, the doctor, back v^ith me ; the other said he 
would come in the morning. 

Leaving Joseph to explain matters, I ran to the children's 
room : their door was ajar ; I saw they had never laid down, 
diough it was past midnight ; but they were calmer, and did 
not need me to console them. The litUe souls were comforting 
each other with beitter thoughts than I could have hit on ; no 
> parson in the world ever pictured Heaven so beautifully as they 
did, in their innocent talk ; and, while I sobbed and listened, 
I could not help wishing we were all there safe together. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Hindlet came home to the foneral ; and — a thing that 
amazed us, and set the neighbors gossiping right and left — ^he 
brought a wifo with«him. 

What she was, and where she was bom, he never inform- 
ed us; probably she had neither money nor name to recom- 
mend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his 
father. 

She was not one that would have disturbed the house much 
on her own account. Every object she saw, the moment she 
crossed the threshold, appeared to delight her; and every cir- 
cumstance that took place about her, except the preparing for 
the burial, and the presence of the mourners. 

I thought she was half silly, from her behavior while that 
went on ; she ran into her chamber, and made me come with 
her, though I should have been dresmng the children ; and there 



40 WUTHEBING HEIGHTS. 



she sat Bhivering and clasping her hands, and asking repeat- 
edly — 

" Are they gone yet V* 

Then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect 
it produced on her to see black, and started, and trembled, and 
at last fell a weeping ; and when I asked what was the matter, 
answered she didn't know, but she felt so afraid of dying ! 

I imagined her as little likely to die as myself She was 
rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes 
sparkled as bright as diamonds. I did remark, to be sure, that 
mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick, that the least 
sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she coughed trou- 
blesomely sometimes ; but I knew nothing of what these symp- 
toms portended, and had no impulse to sympathize with her. 
We don't in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, 
unless they take to us first. 

Young Eamshaw was altered considerably in the three years 
of his absence. He had grown sparer, and lost his color, and 
spoke and dressed quite differently ; and, on the very day of 
his return, he told Joseph and me we must thenceforth quarter 
ourselves in the back-kitchen, and leave the house for him. 
Indeed, he would have carpeted and papered a small spare 
room for a parlor ; but his wife expressed such pleasure at the 
white floor and huge glowing fireplace, at the pewter dishes 
and delf-case, and dog-kennel, and the wide space there was to 
move about in, where they usually sat, that he thought it un- 
necessary to her comfort, and so dropped the intention. 

She expressed pleasure, too, at finding a sister among her 
new acquaintance, and she prattled to Catherine, and kissed 
her, and ran about with her, and gave her quantities of pres- 
ents, at the beginning. Her affection tired, very soon, however, 
and when she grew peevish, Hindley became tyrannical. A 
few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were 
enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy. He 
drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of 
the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labor 
out of doors instead, compelling him to do so, as hard as any 
other lad on the fium. 

He bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy 
taught him what she learned, and worked or played with him 
in the fields. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as 
savages, the young master being entirely negligent how they 



WUTUEBIN6 HEIGHTS. 41 

behaved, and what they did, so they kept clear of him. He 
would not even have seen after their going to church on Sun- 
days, only Joseph and the curate reprimanded his carelessness 
when they absented themselves, and that reminded him to 
order Heathdiff a flogging, and Catherine a fast from dinner or 
supper. 

But it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the 
moors in the morning and remain there all day, and the after- 
punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at. The curate might 
set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine to get by 
heart, and Joseph might thrash Heathclifl* till his arm ached ; 
they forgot every thing the minute they were together again, at 
least the minute they had contiived some naughty plan of re- 
venge ; and many a time I've cried to myself to watch them 
growing more reckless daily, and I not daring to speak a sylla 
ble, for fear of losing the smaU power I still retained over the 
unfriended creatures. 

One Sunday evening, it chanced that they were banished 
frt>m the sitting-room, for making a noise, or a light offense of 
the kind, and when I went to caU them to supper, I could dis- 
cover them nowhere. 

We searched the house, above and below, and the yard, and 
stables— they were invisible ; and at last, Hindley, in a passion, 
told us to bolt the doors, and swore nobody should let them in 
that night. 

The household went to bed ; and I, too anxious to lie down, 
opened my lattice, and put my head out to hearken, though it 
rained, determined to admit them, in spite of the prohibition, 
should they return. 

In a while, I distinguished steps coming up the road, and the 
light of a lantern glimmered through the gate. 

I threw a shawl over my head, and ran to prevent them from 
waking Mr. Eamshaw by £:nocking. * There was Heathcliff by 
himself; it gave me a start to see him alone. 

" Where is Miss Catherine V* I cried, hurriedly. " No acci- 
dent, I hope V 

" At Thiiishcross Grrange," he answered ; " and I would 
have been there too, but diey had not the manners to ask me 
to stay." 

" Well, you will catch it !" I said ; " you'll never be content 
till you're sent about your business. What in the world led 
you wandering to Thrushcross Grange V* 



42 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

*< Let roe get off my wet clothes, and I'll tell you aU about 
it, Nelly," he replied. 

I bid him beware of rousing the master, and while he un- 
dressed, and I waited to put out the candle, he continued — 

*' Cathy and I escaped from the wash-house to have a ramble 
at liberty, and, getting a glimpse of the Grange lights, we 
thought we would just go and see whether the Lintpns passed 
their Sunday evenings standing shivering in comers, while their 
father and mother sat eating and drinking, and singing and 
laughing, and burning their eyes out before the fire. Do you 
think they do 1 Or reading sermons, and being catechised by 
their man-servant, and set to learn a column of Sciipture names, 
if they don't answer properly V* 

" Probably not," I responded. " They are good children, no 
doubt, and don't deserve the treatment you receive for your bad 
conduct." 

" Don't you cant, Nelly," he said, " nonsense ! We ran from 
the top of flie Heights to the park, without stopping — Catherine 
completely beaten in the race, because she was barefoot. You'll 
have to seek for her shoes in the bog to-morrow. We crept 
through a broken hedge, groped our way up the path, and 
planted ourselves on a flower-pot under the drawing-room win- 
dow. The light came from thence ; they had not put up the 
shutters, and the curtains were only half closed. Both of us 
were able to look in, by standing on the basement and clinging 
to the ledge, and we saw — ah 1 it was beautiful — ^a spleiidid 
place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chau*s and 
tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of 
glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the center, and shim- 
mering with litJde soft tapers. Old Mr. and Mrs. Linton were 
not there. Edgar and his sister had it entirely to themselves ; 
shouldn't they have been happy? We should have thought 
ourselves in heaven ! And now, gu^ what your good childi-en 
were doing 1 Isabella — I believe she is eleven, a year younger 
than Cathy — ^lay screaming at the farther end of the room, 
shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles into her. 
Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle 
of the table sat a little dog shaking its paw and yelping, which, 
from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly 
pulled in two between them. The idiots! That was their 
pleasure ! to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair ; 
and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to get it. 



WUTHBRINO HEIGHT 8. 



tefused to take it. We laughed ontriglit at the petted things, 
we did despise them ! When would you catch me wishing to 
have what Catherine wanted 1 or find us hy ourselyes, seeking 
entertainment in yelling, and sohbing, and rolling on the ground, 
divided by the whole room 1 I'd not exchange, for a thousand 
lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton's at Thrushcross 
Grange— not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph 
oS the highest gable, and painting the house-front vnth Hind- 
ley's blood !" 

" Hush, hush !" I interrupted. " Still you have not told me, 
Heathcliff, how Catherine is lefi; behind V* 

** I told you we laughed," he answered. The Lintons heard 
us ; and with one accord they shot like arrows to the door. 
There was silence, and then a cry, 'Oh, mamma, mamma! Oh, 
papa ! Oh, mamma, come here. Oh, papa, Oh !' They really 
did howl out something in that way. We made fiightfiil noises 
to terrify them still more, and then we dropped off the ledge, 
because somebody was drawing the bars, and we felt we had 
better flee. I had Cathy by the hand, and was urging her on, 
when all at once she fell down. 

** ' Run, Hea^liff, run 1 she whispered ; * they have let the 
boll-dog loose, and he holds me !' 

'* The devil had seized her ancle, Nelly; I heard his aborp- 
inable snorting. She did not yell out — no 1 She would have 
scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a 
mad cow. I did, though ; I vociferated curses enough to anni- 
hilate any fiend in Christendom ; and I got a ston6 and thrust it 
between his jaws, and tried with all my might to cram it down 
his throat. A beast of a servant came up vnth a lantern, at last, 
shouting — 

'* ' Keep fast, Skulker, keep fest !' 

"He changed his note, however, v^en he saw Skulker's 
game. The dog was throttled off — ^his huge, purple tongue 
hanging half a foot out of his mouth, and his pendent lips stream- 
ing vnth bloody slaver. 

" The man took Cathy up— -she was sick ; not from fear, I'm 
ceitain, but firom pain. He carried her in ; I followed, grum- 
bling execrations and vengeance. 

" ' What prey, Robert ? hallooed Linton from the entrance ' 

*' * Skulker has caueht a little girl, sir,' he replied, and there's 
a lad here,' he added, making a clutch at me, 'who looks an 
out-and-outer! Very like, the robbers were for putting them 



44 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

through the window, to open the dooi*s to the gang, after all 
were asleep, that they might murder us at their ease. Hold 
your tongue, you foul-mouthed thief, you ! you shall go to the 
gallows for this. Mr. Linton, sir, don't lay by your gun !' 

" * No, no, Robert!' said the old fooL * The rascals knew that 
yesterday was my rent day; they thought to have me cleverly. 
Come in ; I'll furnish them a reception. There, John, fasten the 
chain. Give Skulker some water, Jenny. To beard a magis 
trate in his strong-hold, and on the Sabbath, too ! where will 
their insolence stop? Oh, my dear Mary, look here! Don't 
be afraid, it is but a boy — ^yet, the villain scowls so plainly in 
his face, would it not be a kindness to the country to hang him 
at once, before he shows his nature in acts, as well as -features V 

" He pulled me under the chandelier, and Mrs. Linton placed 
her spectacles on her nose and raised her hands in horror. The 
cowardly children crept nearer, also, Isabella lisping — 

** * Frightful thing ! Put him in the cellar, papa. He's ex- 
actly like the son of Qie fortune-teller, that stole my tame pheasant. 
Isn't he, Edgar r 

" * While they examined me, Cathy came round ; she heard 
the last speech, and laughed. Edgar Linton, after an inquisitive 
stare, collected sufficient wit to recognize her. They see, us at 
church, you know, though we seldom meet them elsewhere.' 

" * That's Miss Eamshaw !' he whispered to his mother, * and 
look how Skulker has bitten her — how her foot bleeds !' 

" * Miss Eamshaw 1 Nonsense !' cried the dame, * Miss Earn 
shaw scouring the coimtry with a gipsy ! And yet, my deai*, 
the child is in mourning — surely it is — and she may be lamed 
for life!' 

" * What culpable carelessness in her brother!' exclaimed Mr. 
Linton, turning from me to Catherine. * I've understood from 
Shielders (that was the curate, sir) that he lets her grow up in 
absolute heathenism. But who is thisi Where did she pick 
up this companion? Oho! I declare he is that strange acqui- 
sition my late neighbor made in his jouiiiey to Liverpool— a 
little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.' 

" * A vricked boy, at all events,' remarked the old lady, * and 
quite unfit for a decent house I Did you notice his language, 
Linton ? I'm shocked that my children sjiould have heard it.' 

"I recommenced <;ursing — don't be angry, Nelly — and so 
Robert was ordered to take me off. I refused to go without 
Cathy ; he dragged, me into the garden, pushed the lantern into 



WUTHRBING HEIGHTS. 45 

my hand, assured me that Mr. Eamshaw should be informed 
of my behavior, and biding me march directly, secured th^door 
again. 

" The curtains were still looped up at one comer , and I re 
snmed my station as spy, because, if Catherine had wished to 
return, I intended shattering their great glass panes to a million 
fragments, unless they let her out. 

" She sat on the sofa quietly, Mi*s. Linton took off the gray 
cloak of the dairy maid which we had borrowed for our excur- 
sion—shaking her head, and expostulating with her, I suppose ; 
she was a young lady, and they made -a distinction between her 
treatment and mine. Then the woman servant brought a basin 
of warm water, and washed her feet, and Mr. Linton mixed a 
tumbler of negus, and Isabella emptied a platefol of cakes into 
her lap, and Edgar stood gaping at a distance. Afterward, 
they dried and combed her beautiful hair, and save her a pair 
of enormous slippers, and wheeled her to the nre ; and I left 
her, as merry as she could be, dividing her food between the 
little dog and Skulker, whose nose she pinched as he ate, and 
kindling a spark of spirit in the vacant blue eyes of the Lintons 
—a dim reflection m>m her own enchanting face — I saw they 
were full of stupid admiration ; she is so immeasurably superior 
to them — ^to every body on earth ; is she not, Nelly ?" 

" There will more come of this business than you reckon on," 
I answered, covering him up and extinguishing die light; '* You 
are incurable Heathcliff, and Mr. Hindley will have to proceed 
to extremities, see if he won't." 

My words came truer than I desired. The luckless adventure 
made Eamshaw furious ; and then Mr. Linton, to mend matters, 
paid us a visit himself on the morrow, and read the young mas- 
ter such a lecture on the road he guided his family, that he was 
stirred to look about him in earnest. 

Heathcliff received no flogging, but he was told that the first 
word he he spoke to Miss Catherine should ensure a dismissal 
and Mrs. Eamshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due 
restraint when she returned home, employing art, not force—^ 
' with force she would have found it impossible. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Catht stayed at Thrushcrods Grange five weeks, till Christ- 
mas. By that time her ankle was thoroughly cured, and her 
manners much improved. The mistress visited her often, in 
the interval, and commenced her plan of reform, by trying to 
raise her self-respect with fine clothes, and flattery, which she 
took readily; so that, instead of a vdld, hatless little savage 
jumping into the house, and rushing to squeeze us all bream- 
less, there lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified 
person v^th brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered 
beaver, and a long cloth habit which she was obliged to hold 
up with both hands that she might sail in. 

Hindley lifted her ftom her horse, exclaiming, delightedly, 

" Why, Cathy, you are quite a beauty ! I should scarcely 
have known you— you look like a lady now — Isabella Linton 
is not to be compared with her, is she, Frances V 

" Isabella has not her natural advantages," replied his ynfe, 
** but she must mind and not grow wild again here. Ellen, 
help Miss Catherine off with her things — stay, dear, you will 
disarri^ge your curls— let me untie youWiaf." 

I removed the habit, and there shone forth beneath a grand 
plaid silk frock white trousers and burnished shoes ; and, while 
her eyes sparkled joyfully when the dogs came bounding up to 
welcome her, she dare hardly touch them lest they should favm 
upon her splendid garments. |^ 

She kissed me gently, I was all flour making and Cnristmas 
cake, and it would not have done to give me a hug ; and, then, 
she looked round for Heathcliff. Mr. and Mrs. Eamshaw 
watched anxiously their meeting, thinking it would enable 
them to judge, in some measure, what grounds they had ft>r 
hoping to succeed in separating the two friends. 

Heathcliff was hard to discover, at first. If he were care- 
less and uncared for, before Catherinie's absence, he had been* 
ten times more so since. 

Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy, 
and bid him wash himself, once a week ; and children of his age 
seldom have a natural pleasure in soap and water. Therefore, 
not to mention his clothes, which had seen three months' service. 



WUTHEBINO HEIGHTS. 47 

in mire and dust» and his thick uncombed hair, the surface oi 
his face and ha^ds was dismally beclouded. He might wel 
skulk behind the settle, on beholding such a bright, graceftil 
damsel enter the house, instead of a rough-headed counterpart 
to himself, as he expected. 

'' Is HeathcHff not here V she demanded, pulling off her 
gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully whitened with doing 
nothing, and staying in doors. 

" Heathcliff, you may come forward," cried Mr. Hindley en- 
joying his discomfiture, and gratified to see what a forbidding 
young blackguard he would be compelled to present himse£ 
** You may come and wish Miss CaUierine welcome, like the 
other servants." 

Cathy, catching a glimpse of her fiiend in his concealment, 
flew to embrace him> she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his 
cheek within the second, and then stopped and, drawing back, 
burst into a laugh, exclaiming, 

" Why, how very bla.ck and cross you look ! and how- 
how funny and grim ! But that's because I'm used to Edgar 
and Isabella Linton. Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me %'* 

She had some reason to put ^ question, for shame and 
pride threw double gloom over his countenance, and kept him 
immovable. 

** Shake hands, Heathcliff," said Mr. Eamshaw, condescend- 
ingly ; " once in a way, that is permitted." 

" I shall not !" repUed the boy, finding his tongue at last, '' I 
shall not stand to be laughed at, I shall not bear it !" 

And he would have broken firom the circle^ but Miss Cathy 
seized him again. 

" I did not mean to laugh at you," she said, ^' I could not 
hinder myself Heathcliff; shake hands, at least! What are 
you sulky for ? It was only that you looked odd. If you 
wash your fiice and brush your hair it will be all right.' But 
you are so dirty !" 

She gazed concernedly at the duskv fingers she held in her 
own, and also at her dress, which she feared had gained no em- 
bellishment from its contact with his. 

"You needn't have touched me!" he answered, following 
her eye, and snatching away his hand. ^I shall be as dirty as 1 
please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty." 

With that he dashed head foremost out of the room, amid the 
merriment of the master and mistress, and to the serious disturb- 



48 W U r U-B E I N O H E I 6 H T U. 

ance of Catherine, who could not comprehend how her re- 
marks should have produced such an exhibition of bad tem- 
per. 

After playing lady's maid to the new comer, and putting my 
cakes in the oven, and making the house and kitchen cheerful 
with great fires befitting Christmas eve, I prepared to sit down 
and amuse myself by singing carols, aU alone ; regardless of 
Joseph's s^rmations that he considered the merry tunes I chose 
as next door to songs. 

He had retired to private prayer in his chamber, and Mr. 
and Mrs. Eamshaw were engaging Miss's attention by sundry 
gay trifles bought fi>r her to present to the little Lintons, as an 
acknowledgment of their kindness. 

They had invited them to spend the morrow at Wuthering 
Heights, and the invitation had been accepted on one condition : 
Mrs. Linton begged that her darlings might be kept carefully 
apart from that " naughty, swearing boy." 

Under these circumstances I remained solitary. I smelled the 
rich scent of the heating spices, and admired the shining kitchen 
utensils, the polished clock decked in holly, the silver mugs 
ranged on a tray ready to be filled with mulled ale for supper, 
and, above all, the speckless purity of my particular care---the 
scoured and well-swept floor. 

I gave due inward applause to every object, and then I re- 
membered how old Eamshaw used to come in when all was 
tidied, and call me a cant lass, and shp a shilling into my hand 
as a Christmas-box ; and from that I went on to think of his 
fondness for Heathchff*, and his dread lest he should suffer neg- 
lect after death had removed him ; and that naturally led me to 
consider the poor lad's situation now, and from singing I changed 
my mind to crying. It struck me soon, however, there would 
be more sense in endeavoring to repair some of his wrongs than 
shedding tears over them. I got up and walked into the court 
to seek him. 

He was not far. I found him smoothing the glossy coat of 
the new pony in the stable, and feeding the other beasts, accord- 
ing to custom. 

** Make haste, Heathcliff," I said, " the kitchen is so comfort- 
able, and Joseph is up-stairs. Make haste, and let me dress you 
smart before Miss Cathy comes out, and then you can sit to- 
gether, with the whole hearth to yourselves, and have a long 
chatter till bed-time." 



WUTHBKIN6 HEIGHTS. 40 

He proceeded with bis task, and never turned his head to 
Nrard me. 

" Come— are you coming 1" I continued. " There's a little 
cake for each of you, nearly enough ; and you'll need half an 
hour's donning." 

I waited five minutes; but, getting no answer, then left him. 
Catherine supped with her brother and sister-in-law; Joseph 
and I joined at an unsociable meal, seasoned with reproofs on 
one side and sauciness on the other. His cake and cheese re- 
mained on the table all night for the fairies* He managed to 
continue work till nine o'clock, and th^i marched dumb and 
dour to his chamber. 

Cathy sat up late, having a world of things to order for the 
reception of her new friends : she came into the kitchen once 
to speak to her old one, but he was gone, and she only staid to 
ask what was the matter with him, and then went back. 

In the morning he rose early ; and, as it was a holyday, ear- 
lied his ill-humor into the moors, not reappearing till the fkmily 
were departed for church. Fasting and reflection seemed to 
have brought him to a better spirit. He hung about me for a 
while, and, having screwed up his courage, exclaimed abruptly, 

" Nelly, make me decent : I'm going to be good." 

" High time, Heathcliff," I said ; " you have grieved Cathe- 
rine; .she's sorry she ever came home, I dare say. It looks as 
if you envied her because she is more thought of than you." 

The notion of envying Catherine was incomprehensible to 
him ; but the notion of grieving her he understood clearly enough. 

*♦ Did she say she was grieved ]" he inquired, looking very 
serious. 

" She cried when I told her you were off again this morning." 

** Well, I cried last night," he returned, " and I had more 
reason to cry than she." 

" Yes, you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart 
and an empty stomach," said I. *' Proud people breed sad sor- 
rows for themselves. But if you be ashamed of your touchiness, 
you must ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go 
up and offer to kiss her, and say — ^you know best what to say, 
only do it heartily, and not as if you thought her converted into 
a stranger by her grand dress. And now, though I have dinner 
to eet ready, I'll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton 
shiul look quite a doll beside you, and that he does. You are 
younger, and yet I'll be bound you are taller and twice as broad 



dO WUTHERfNG HEIGHTS. 

across the shoulders : you could knock him down in a twinkling 
—don't you feel that you could V* 

Heathclififs face brightened a moment, then it was overcast 
afresh, and he sighed. 

** But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't 
make hhn less handsome or me more so. I wish I had hght haii 
and a fidr skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had 
a chance of being as rich as he will be I" 

" And cried for mamma at every turn," I added, " and trem- 
bled if a country lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home 
all day for a shower of raiu. O, Heathcliff, you are showing a 
poor spirit ! Come to the glass, and I'll let you see what you 
should wish. Do you mark those two lines between your eyes, 
and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the 
middle ; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who 
never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, 
like devil's spies 1 Wish and learn to smooth away the surly 
wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to con- 
fident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and 
always seeing friends where they are not sure of foes. Don't 

fet die expression of a vicious cur that appears to know the 
icks it gets are its desert, and yet hates all the world, as well 
as the kicker, for what it suffers." 

" In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton's great, blue 
eyes and even forehead," he replied. "I do, and 3iat won't 
help me to them." 

" A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad," I con- 
tinued, " if you were a regular black, and a bad one will turn 
the bonniest into something worse than ugly. And now that 
we've done washing, and combing, and sulking, tell me whether 
you don't think yourself rather handsome % I'll tell you, I do. 
You're fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows but your father 
was Emperor of China and your mother an Indian mieen, each 
of tbem able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering 
Heights and Thrushcross Grange together ] And you were kid- 
napped by wicked sailors, and brought to England. Were I in 
your place, I would frame high notions of my birth, and the 
thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to 
support the oppressions of a little farmer !" 

So I chatted on ; and Heathclifi* gradually lost his frown, and 
began to look quite pleasant, when, all at once, our conversation 
was interrupted by a rumbling sound moving up the road and 



WUTHBEINO HEIGHTS, 51 

entering the court. He ran to the window and I to the door, 
just in time to hehold the two Lintons descend from the family 
carriage, smothered in cloaks and furs, and the Eamshaws dis- 
mount from their horses : they ofben rode to church in winter. 
Catherine took a hand of each of the children, and brought diem 
into the house and set them before the fire, which quickly put 
color into their white faces. 

I urged my companion to hasten now, and show his amiable 
humor, and he willingly obeyed ; but ill luck would have it 
that, as h9 opened the door leading from the kitchen on one side, 
Hindley opened it on the other. They met ; and the master, 
irritated at seeing him clean and cheeriul, or perhaps eager to 
keep his promise to Mi*s. Linton, shoved him back with a sud- 
den thrust, and angrily bade Joseph " keep the fellow out of the 
room — send him into the garret till dinner is over. He'll be 
cramming his fingers in the tarts, and stealing the fruit, if left 
alone with them a minute." 

" Nay, Sir," I could not avoid answering, "he'll touch noth- 
ing, not he— and, I suppose, he must have his share of the dain- 
ties as well as we." 

" He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him down 
stairs againr till dark," cried Hindley. " Begone, you vaga- 
bond! What! you are attempting the coxcomb^ are youl 
Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks — see if I won't pull 
them a bit longer !" 

" They are long enough already," observed Master Linton, 
peeping from the door-way, "I wonder they don't make his 
head ache. It's like a colt's mane over his eyes !" 

He ventured this remark without any intention to insult ; but 
HeathcliflTs violent nature was not prepared to endure the ap- 
pearance of impertinence from one whom he seemed to hate, 
even then, as a rival. He seized a tureen of hot apple-sauce, 
the first thing that came under his gripe, and dashed it full 
against the speaker's face and neck — who instantly commenced 
a lament that brought Isabella and Catherine to the place. 

Mr. Eamshaw snatched up the culprit directly, and conveyed 
him to his chamber, where, doubtless, he administered a rough 
remedy to cool the fit of passion, for he reappeared red and 
breathless. I got the dishcloth, and, rather spitefiilly, scrubbed 
Edgar's nose and mouth, affirming it served him right for med- 
dling. His sister began weeping to go home, and Cathy stood 
by confounded, blushmg for aU. 



WUTBBRl'6 UKIGUTB. 



'*You should not have spoken to him!" she expostulated 
with Master Linton. "He was in a bad temper, and now 
you've spoiled your visit, and he'll be flogged — I hate him to be 
flogged f I can't eat my dimier. Why did you speak to him, 
Edgar r 

" I didn't," sobbed the youth, escaping fi:om my hands, and 
finished the remainder of the purification with his cambric 
pocket-handkerchief. " I promised mamma that I wouldn't say 
one word to him, and I didn't !" 

"Well, don't cry!" replied Catherine contemptuously. . 
" You're not killed— don't make more mischief— my brother is 
coming — be quiet ! Give over, Isabella ! Has any body hurt 
your 

" There, there, children — to your seats !" cried Hindley, 
bustling in. " That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely. 
Next time. Master Edgar, take the law into your own fists — ^it 
will give you an appetite !" 

The little party recovered its equanimity at the sight of the 
firagrant feast. They were hungry, after their ride, and easily 
consoled, since no real harm had befallen them. 

Mr. Eamshaw carved bountiful platefuls ; and the mistress 
made them merry with lively talk. I waited behind her chair, 
and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an in- 
diflerent air, commence cutting up the vnng of a goose before 
her. 

" An unfeeling child," I thought to myself, " how lightly she 
dismisses her old playmate's troubles. I could not have imag- 
ined her to be so selfish." 

She lifted a mouthful to her lips ; then, she set it down again : 
her cheeks flushed, and the tears gushed over them. She 
slipped her fork to the floor, and hastily dived under the cloth 
to conceal her emotion. I did not call her unfeeling long, for I 
perceived she was in purgatory throughout the day, and weary- 
mg to find an oppoitunity of getting by herself, or paying a visit 
to Heathclifi^, who had been locked up by the master, as I dis- 
covered on endeavoring to introduce to him a private mess of 
victuals. 

In the evening we had a dance. Cathy begged that he might 
be liberated then, as Isabella Linton had no partner : her en- 
treaties were vain, and I w{^ appointed to supply the defi- 
ciency. 

We got rid of all gloom in the excitement of the exercise, and 



WUTHBKINOHBlidl^^V. 5^ 

our pleasure was increased by the arriTal oS tha Guomerton 
band, mustering fifteen strong; a trumpet, a trombone clarion- 
nets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers. 
They go the rounds of all the respectable houaes, and receive 
contributions every Christmas, ^d we esteemed it a first-rate 
treat to hear them. 

After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songs 
and glees. Mrs. Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave 
us plenty. 

Catherine loved it too; but she said it sounded sweetest al 
the top of the steps, and she went up in the dark : I followed. 
They shut the house door below, never noting our absence, it 
was so fiill of people. She made no stay at the stair's head, but 
mounted fiairther to the garret where Heathcliff wa^ confined ; 
and called him. He stubbornly declined answering for a while 
— she persevered, and finally persuaded him to hold communion 
with her through the boards. 

I let the poor things converse unmolested, till I supposed the 
smigs were going to cease, and the singers to get some refirMsh- 
ment : then I clambered up the ladder to warn her. 

Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within. Tfea 
little monkey had crept by the skylight of one garret, along tb^ 
roof, into the skylight of the other, and it was with die utmoK 
difficulty I could coax her out again. 

When she did come, HeathcUjBT came with her ; and she i» 
sisted that I should take him into the kitchen, as my feUow-ser 
vant had gone to a neighbor's to be removed from the sound of 
our " devil's psalmody," as it pleased him to call it. 

I told them I intended by no means to encourage their tricks/ 
but as the prisoner had never broken his fast since yesterday'^ 
dinner, I would wink at his cheating Mr. Hindley that once. 

He went down ; I set him a stool by the fire, and offered him 
a quantity of good things ; but he was sick, and could eat little . 
and my attempts to entertain him were thrown away. He leane/ 
his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands, and re 
mained wrapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the sub 
ject of his thoughts, he answered, gravely — 

" I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't 
care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he wiD 
not die before I do !" 

" For shame, Heathcliff !" said I. " It is for God to punish 
wicked people ; we should learn to forgive." 



51 WUTUERINO HEIGHT St 

** No, God won't have the Batisfaction that I shall," he re- 
turned. •* I only wish I knew the best way ! Let me alone, 
and I'll plan it out : while I'm thinking of that I don't feel 
pain." — 

But, Mr. Lock wood, I forget these tales can not divert yon. 
I'm annoyed how I should dream of chattering on at such a 
rate ; and your gruel cold, and you nodding for bed ! I could 
have told Heathcliflf 's history, all that you need hear, in half-a- 
dozen words. — 

Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and pro- 
ceeded to lay aside her sewing ; but I felt incapable of moving 
from the hearth, and I was very far from nodding. 

" Sit still, Mrs. Dean," I cried, '* do sit still another half-hour ! 
You've done just right to tell the story leisurely. That is the 
method I like ; and you must finish in the same style. I am in- 
terested in every character you have mentioned, more or less." 

" The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir." 

" No matter — ^I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long 
hours. One or two is early enough for a person who lies till 
ten." 

" You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the 
morning gone long before that time. A person who has not 
done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of 
leaving the other half undone." 

" Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair ; because to- 
morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon I prog- 
nosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least." 

" I hope not, sir. Well, you must allow me to leap over 
some three yeara. During that space, Mrs. Eamshaw"— 

" No, no, I'll allow notlung of tne sort. Are you acquainted 
with the mood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and 
the cat licking its kitten on the rug before you, you would 
watch the operation so intently that puss's neglect of one ear 
would put you seriously out of temper 1" 

" A terrible lazy mood, I should say," 

''On the contrary, a tiregomely active one. It is mine at 
present, and therefore continue minutely. I perceive that peo- 
ple in these regions acquire over people in towns the value that 
a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their 
various occupants ; and yet the deepened attraction is not en- 
tirely owing to the situation of the looker-on. They do live 
more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface change 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 55 

and frivolous external things. I could fancy a love for life here 
almost possible ; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any love of a 
year's standing. One state resembles setting a hungry man down 
to a single dish, on which he may concentrate his entire appe- 
tite, and do it justice— the other, introducing him to a table laid 
out by French cooks j he can perhaps extract as much enjoy- 
ment from the whole ; but each part is a mere atom in his regard 
and remembrance." 

" Oh ! here we are the same as any where else, when you get 
to know us," observed Mrs. Dean, somewhat puzzled at my 
speech. 

** Excuse me," I responded ; " you, my good friend, are a 
striking evidence against that assertion. Excepting a few pro- 
vincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the 
manners that I am habituated to consider as peculiar to your 
class. I am sure you have thought a great deal more than the 
generality of servants think. You have been compelled to cul- 
tivate your reflective faculties, for want of occasions for fritter- 
ing your life away in silly trifles." 

Mrs. Dean laughed. 

** I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable kind of body," 
she said, '' not exactly from living among the hills, and seeing 
one set of faces, and one series of actions, from year's end to 
year's end : but I have undergone sharp discipline, which has 
taught me wisdom ; and then I have read more than you would 
fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book in this li- 
brary that I have not looked into, and got something out of 
also ; unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of 
French ; and those I know one from another — it is as much as 
you can expect of a poor man's daughter. 

" However, if 1 am to follow my story in true gossip's fashion, 
I had better go on ; and instead of leaping three years, I will 
be content to pass to the next summer — th& summer of 1778 — 
that is nearly twenty-three years ago." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

On the moming of a fine June day, my first bonny little nurs- 
ling, and the last o£ the ancient Earnshaw stock, was born. 

We were busy with the hay in a far-away field, when the 
girl that usually brought our breakfasts came running, an hour 
too soon, across the meadow and up the lane, calling me as she 
ran. 

" Oh, such a grand bairn !" she panted out. ** The finest lad 
that ever breathed ! but the doctor says missis must go ; he says 
she's been in a consumption these many months. I heard him 
tell Mr. Hindley — and now she has nothing to keep her, and 
she'll be dead before winter. You must come home directly. 
You're to nurse it, Nelly — to feed it with sugar and milk, and 
take care of it, day and night — ^I wish I were you, because it 
will be all yours when there is no missis !" 

" But is she very ill V I asked, flinging down my rake, and 
tying my bonnet. 

" I guess she is ; yet she looks bravely," replied the girl, 
** and she talks as if she thought of living to see it grow a man. 
She's out of her head for joy, it's such a beauty. If I were her 
I'm certain I should not die. I should get better at the bare 
sight of it, in spite of Kenneth. I was fairly mad at him. Dame 
Archer brought the cherub down to master, in the house^ and 
his face just began to light up, then the old croaker steps for- 
ward, and, says he, ' Earnshaw, it's a blessing your wife has 
been spared to leave you this son. When she came, I felt con- 
vinced we shouldn't keep her long ; and now, I must tell you, 
the winter will probably finish her. Don't take on, and firet 
about it too much ; it can't be helped. And besides, you should 
have known better than to choose such a rush of a lass." 

" And what did the master answer 1" I inquired. 

" I think he swore— but I didn't mind him, I was sti'aining 
to see the bairn," and she began again to describe it raptur- 
ously. I, as zealous as herself, hurried eagerly home to admire, 
on my pait, though I was very sad for Hindley's sake ; he had 
room in his heart only for two idols — ^his vrife and himself— he 
doted on both, and adored one; and I couldn't conceive how he 
would bear the loss. 



WUTHERINGHEIOHT8. 57 

When we got tt Wuthering Heights, there he stood at the 
fi*OBt door ; and, as I passed in, I asked how was the baby 1 

" Nearly ready to run about, Nell !" he replied, putting on a 
cheei^l smile. 

^'And the mistress 1" I ventured to inquire, ''the doctot 
says she's — " 

" Damn the doctor !" he interrupted, reddening. " Frances 
is quite right — she'll be perfectly well by this time next week. 
Are you going up-stairs i will you tell her that I'll come, if 
she'll promise not to talk. I left her because she would not 
hold her tongue; and she must — tell her Mr. Kenneth says 
she must be quiet." 

I delivered this message to Mrs. Eamshaw ; she seemed in 
flighty spirits, and replied merrily — 

" I hardly spoke a word, Ellen, and there he has gone out 
twice, crying. Well, say I. promise I won't speak; but that 
does not bind me not to laugh at him !" 

Poor soul ! Till within a week of her death that gay heart 
never failed her; and her husband persisted doggedly, nay, 
furiously, in afi&rming her health improved every day. When 
Kennetli warned him that his medicines were useless at that 
stage of the malady, and he needn't put him to further expense 
by attending her, he retorted — 

" I know you need not — she's well — she does not want any 
more attendance from you ! She never was in a consumption. 
It was a fever ; and it is gone— her pulse is as slow as mine now, 
and her cheek as cooL" 

He told his wife the same story, and she seemed to believe 
him ; but one night while leaning on his shoulder, in the act of 
saying she thought she should be able to get up to-morrow, a fit 
of coughing took her — a very slight one — ^he raised her in his 
arms ; she put her two hands about his neck, her face changed, 
and she was dead. 

As the girl had anticipated, the child Hareton fell wholly 
into my hands. Mr. Earnshaw, provided he saw him healthy, 
and never heard him cry, was contented, as far as regarded 
him. For himself he grew desperate ; his sorrow was of that 
kind that will not lament; he neither wept nor prayed; he 
cursed and defied ; execrated God and man, and gave himself 
up to reckless dissipation. 

The servants could not bear his tyrannical and evil conduct 
long. Joseph and I were the only two that would stay. I had 



58 WUTUERING HEIGHTS. 

not the heart to leave my charge ; aud besides, you know I had 
been his foster-sister, and excused his behavior more readily 
than a stranger would. 

Joseph remained to hector over tenants and- laborers'; and 
because it was his vocation to be where he had plenty of wick- 
edness to reprove. 

The master's bad ways and bad companions formed a pretty 
example for Catherine and Heathcliff. His treatment of the 
latter Was enough to make a fiend of a saint. And truly it ap- 
peared as if the lad were possessed of something diabolical at 
that period. He delighted to witness Hindley degrading him- 
self past redemption ; and became daily more notable for savage 
suUenness and ferocity. 

I could not half tell what an infernal house we had. The 
cui*ate dropped calling, and nobody decent came near us at last ; 
unless Edgar Linton's visits to Miss Cathy might be an excep- 
tion. At fifteen she was the queen of the country-side; she had 
no peer : and she did turn out a haughty, headstrong creature ! 
I own I ^did not like her, afi:er her infancy was past ; and I 
vexed herfrequently by trying to bring down her arrogance; 
she never took an aversion to me, though. She had a wondrous 
constancy to old attachments ; even Heathcliff kept his hold on 
her afiections unalterably ; and young Linton, with all his supe 
riority, found it difficult to make an equally deep impression. 

He was my late master ; that is his portrait over the fireplace. 
It used to hang on one side, and his wife's on the other ; but 
hers has been removed, or else you might see something of 
what she was. Can you make that out 1— 

Mrs. Dean raised the candle, and I discerned a soft-featured 
face, exceedingly resembling the young lady at the Heights, but 
more pensive and amiable in expression. It formed a sweet 
picture. The long light hair curled slightly on the temples ; 
the eyes were large and serious ; the figure almost too grace- 
ful. I did not marvel how Catherine Eamshaw could forget 
her first friend for such an individual. I marveled much how 
he, with a mind to correspond to his person, could fancy my 
idea of Catherine Eamshaw. 

" A very agreeable portrait," I observed to the housekeeper. 
"Is it like r 

Yes, she answered ; but he looked better when he was ani- 
mated; that is his every-day countenance; he wanted spirit 
in general. 



WUTHI;RIN6 HEIGHTS. 59 

Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons since 
her five weeks' residence, among them ; and as she had no temp- 
tation to show h^r rough side in their company, and had the 
sense to be ashamed of being rude where she experienced such 
invariable courtesy ; she imposed unwittingly on tne old lady and 
gentleman by her ingenuous cordiality ; gained the admiration 
of Isabella, and the heart and soul of her brother — acquisitions 
that flattered her from the first, for she was full of ambition, and 
led her to adopt a double character, without exactly intending 
to deceive any one. 

In the place where she heard Heathcliff termed a ** vulgar 
young ruffian," and ** worse than a brute," she took care not to 
act like him ; but at home she had small inclination to practice 
politeness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an unruly 
nature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise. 

Mr, Edgar seldom mustered courage to visit Wuthering 
Heights openly. He had a terror of Eamshaw's reputation, 
and shrunk firom encountering him ; and yet he was always re- 
ceived with our best attempts at civility: the master himself 
avoided offending him, knowing why he came ; and if he could 
not be gracious, kept out of the way. I rather think hb appear- 
ance there was distastefiil to Catherine; she was not artiul — 
never played the coquette, and had evidently an objection to her 
two finends meeting at all ; for when Heathcliff* expressed con- 
tempt of Linton, in his presence, she could not half coincide, as 
she did in his absence; and when Linton evinced disgust and 
antipathy to Heathcliff*, she dared not treat his sentiments with 
indifference, as if depreciation of her playmate were of scarcely 
any consequence to her. 

I've had many a laugh at her perplexities and untdd troubles, 
which she vainly strove to hide fi'om my mockery. Tnat sounds 
ill-natured — but she was so pix>ud, it became really impossible 
to pity her distresses, till she should be chastened into more 
humility. 

She did bring herself finally to confess, and confide, in me. 
There was not a soul else that she might fashion into an adviser. 

Mr. Hindley had gone from home one afternoon, and Heath- 
cliff* presumed to give himself a holiday on the strength of it. 
He had reached the age of sixteen then, I think, and -mthouX 
having bad features or being deficient in intellect, he contrived 
to convey an impression of inward and outward repulsiveness 
that his present aspect retains no traces of. ' 



60 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

In the first place, he had, by that time, lost the benefit of his 
early education : continual hard work, begun soon and concluded 
late, had extinguished any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit 
of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. His child- 
hood's sense of superiority, instilled into him by the favors of 
old Mr. Eamshaw, was faded away. He struggled long to 
keep up an equality with Catherine in her studies, and yielded 
with poignant though silent regret ; but he yielded completely, 
and there was no prevailing on him to take a step in the way 
of moving upward, when he found he must necessarily sink be- 
neath his former level. Then personal appearance sympathized 
vnth mental deterioration ; he acquired a slouching gait and ig- 
noble look ; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated 
into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness ; and he 
took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion, rather 
than the esteem, c^his few acquaintance. 

Catherine and he were constant companions still, at his sea- 
sons of respite firom labor ; but he had ceased to express his 
fondness for her in words, and recoiled with angry suspicion 
fi*om her girlish caresses, as if conscious there could be no grat- 
ification in lavishing such marks of afiection on him. On the 
before^named occasion he came into the house to announce his 
intention of doing nothing, while I was assisting Miss Cathy to 
arrange her dress. She had not reckoned on his taking it into 
his head to be idle ; and, imagining she would have the whole 
place to herself, she managed, by some means, to inform Mr. 
jSdgar of her brother's absence, and was then preparing to re- 
ceive him. 

" Cathy, are you busy this afternoon V* asked Heathcliff. 
" Are you going any where V 

" No— it is raining," she answered. 

" Why have you that silk frock on, then V he said. " Nobody 
coming here, I hope ]" 

" Not that I know of," stammered Miss ; " but you should be 
in the field now, Heathcliff--^it is an hour past dinner time ; J 
thought you were gone." 

" Hindley does not often free us from his accursed presence," 
observed the boy ; " I'll not work any more to-day — I'll stay 
with you." 

" O, but Joseph will tell," she suggested — ^you'd better go !" 

''Joseph is loading lime on the farther side of Pennistow 
Crag ; it will take him till dark, and he'll never know." 



WUTHBRINO HEIOHT8. CI 

So saying, he lounged to the fire, and sat down. Catherine 
reflected an instant with knitted hrows She found it needful 
to smooth the way for an intrusion. 

" Isabella and Edgar Linton talked of calling this afternoon/' 
she said, at the conclusion of a minute's silence. ** As it rains, I 
hardly expect them ; but they may come, and if they do, you 
run the risk of being scolded for no good.*' 

" Order Ellen to say you are engaged, Cathy," he persisted ; 
" don't turn me out for those pitifd silly friends of yours ! I'm 
on the point, sometimes, of complaining that they — but I'll not — " 

"That they what]" cried Catherine, gazing at him with a 
troubled countenance. "Oh, Nelly!" ehe added, petulantly 
ierking her head away from my hands ; " you've combed my 
hair quite out of curl ! That's enough — let me alone. What 
are you on the point of complaining about, Heathcliff?" 

" Nothing— only look at the ahnanac, on that wall;" he 
pointed to a framed sheet hanging near the window, and 
continued : 

" The crosses are for the evenings you have spent with the 
Lintons, the dots for those spent witn me. Do you see, I've 
marked every day 1 " 

" Yes — ^very foolish ; as if I took notice !" replied Catherine 
in a peevish tone. " And where is the sense of that 1 " 

" To show that I do take notice," said Heathcliff. 

" And should I always be sitting with you V* she demanded, 
growing more irritated. " What good do I get 1 what do you 
talk about ] You might be dumb or a baby, for any thing you 
say to amuse me, or for any thing you do either 1 " 

" You never told me before that I talked too little, or that 
you disliked my company, Cathy 1" exclaimed Heathcliff, in 
much agitation. 

" It is no company at all, when people know nothing and 
say nothing," she muttered. 

Her companion rose up, but he had not time to express his 
feelings further; for a horse's feet were heard on the flags, 
and, having knocked gently, young Linton entered, his face 
brilliant with delight at the unexpected summons he had 
received. 

Doubtless Catherine marked the diflerence between her 
friends as one came in and the other went ouU The contrast 
resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly coal- 
country for a beautiful, fertile valley ; and his voice and greeting 



63 WUTHERING HEIGHTS^ 



were as opposite as his aspect He had a sweet, loiV manner 
of speaking, and pronounced his words as you do, that is, less 
gruff than we talk here, and softer. 

" I'm not come too soon, am 1 ]" he said, casting a look at 
me. I had begun to wipe the plate, and tidy some drawers at 
the far end in the dresser. 

"No," answered Catherine. "What are you doing there, 
NeUyV' 

" My work. Miss," I replied. (Mr. Hindley had given me 
directions to make a third party in any private visits Linton 
chose to pay.) 

She stepped behind me and whispered crossly, " Take your- . 
self and your dustera off! When company are in the house, 
servants don't commence scouring and cleaning in the room 
where they are !" 

" It's a good opportunity, now that master is away," I 
answered aloud, " he hates me to be fidgeting over these things 
in his presence. I'm sure Mr. Edgar will excuse me." 

" I hate you to be fidgeting in my presence," exclaimed the 
young lady imperiously, not allowing her guest time to speak. 
She had failed to recover her equanimity since the little dispute 
with Heathcliff. 

" I'm sorry for it, Miss Catherine !" was my response ; and I 
proceeded assiduously with my occupation. 

She, supposing Edgar could not see her, snatched the cloth 
from my hand, and pinched me, with a prolonged wrench, very 
spitefully, on the arm. 

I have said I did not love hisr; and rather relished mortifying 
her vanity now and then ; besides, she hurt me extremely, so I 
started up from my knees, and screamed out — 

" O, Miss, that's a nasty trick ! you have no right to nip me, 
and I'm not going to bear it !" 

"I did'nt touch you, you lying creature!" cried she, her 
fingers tingling to repeat the act, and her ears red wdth rage. 
She never had power to conceal her passion, it always set her 
whole complexion in a blaze. 

"What's that the-nT' I retoited, showing a decided purple 
witness to refute her. 

She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then, irresist- 
ibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me on 
the cheek a stinging blow that filled both eyes with water. 

" Catherine, love ! Catherine !" interposed Linton, greatly 



WUTHERIN6 H E I O H T 8. 63 

shocked at the double fault of falsehood and violence which his 
idol bad committed. 

" Leave tbe room, Ellen !" she repeated, trembling all over. 

Little Hareton, who followed me every where, and was 
sitting near me on the floor, at seeing my tears, commenced 
crying himself, and sobbed out complaints against '' wicked 
aunt Cathy," which drew her fury upon his unlucky head: 
she seized his shoulders, and shook him till the poor child 
waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of ner hands 
to deliver him. In an instant one was wrung free, and the 
astonished young man felt it applied over his own ear in a way 
that could not be mistaken for jest. 

He drew back in consternation — I lifled Hareton in my 
arms, and walked off to the kitchen with him, leaving the door 
of communication open ; for I was curious to watch how they 
would settle their disagreement. 

The insulted visitor moved to the spot where he had laid his 
hat, pale and with a quivering lip. 

" That's right !" 1 said to myself, " take warning, and be 
gone ! It's a kindness to let you have a glimpse of her genuine 
disposition." 

"Where are you going T' demanded Catherine, advancing 
to the door. 

He swerved aside, and attempted to pass. 

" You must not go !" she exclaimed energetically. 

" I must and shall !" he replied in a subdued voice. 

" No," she persisted, grasping the handle, " not yet, Edgar 
Linton — sit down, you shall not leave me in that temper. I 
should be miserable all night, and I won't be miserable for you!" 

" Can r stay after you have struck me 1 " asked Linton. 

Catherine was mute. 

" You've made me afraid, and ashamed of you ;" he con- 
tinued, " I'll not come here again !" 

Her eyes began to glisten and her lids to twinkle. 

" And you told a deliberate untruth !" he said. 

" I didn*t !" she cried, recovering her speech : ** I did 
nothing deliberately. "Well, go if you please— get away. And 
now 1*11 cry — ^I'll cry m-^self sick !" 

She dropped down on her knees by a chair, and set to 
weeping in serious earnest. 

Edgar persevered in his resolution as far as the court ; there 
he lingered. I resolved to encourage him. 



M WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

" Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir !" I called out. " As bad 
as any marred child. You'd better be riding home, or else 
she will be sick, only to grieve us.'* 

The soft thing looked askance through the window — ^he 
possessed the power to depart, as much as a cat possesses the 
power to leave a mouse hdf killed, or a bird half eaten. 

Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him. He is doomed, 
and flies to his fate ! 

And so it was ; he turned abruptly, hastened into the house 
again, shut the door behind him ; and when I went in a While 
after to inform them that Eamshaw had come home rabid^ 
drunk, ready to pull the old place about our ears (his or<fi- 
nary frame of mind in that condition), I saw the quarrel had 
merely effected a closer intimacy — ^had broken the outworks of 
youthful timidity, and enabled them to forsake the disguise of 
fiiendsbip, and confess themselves lovers. 

Intelligence of Mr. Hindley's arrival drove Linton speedily 
to his horse, and Catherine to her chamber. I went to hide 
little Hareton, and to take the shot out of the master's fowling- 
piece, which he was fond of playing with in his insane excite- 
ment, to the hazard of the lives of any who provoked, or even 
attracted his notice too much ; and I had hit upon the plan of 
removing it, that he might do less mischief, if he did go the 
length of firing the gun. 



CHAPTER IX. 

He entered, voci^ating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught 
me in the act of stowing his son away in the kitchen cupboard. 
Hareton was impressed with a wholesome terror of encounter- 
ing either his wild-beast's fondness, or his madman's rage— for 
in one he ran a chance of being squeezed and kissed to death, 
and in the other of being flimg into the fire, or dashed against 
the wall — and the poor thing remained perfectly quiet wherever 
I chose to put him. 

" There I've found it out at last !" cried Hindley, pulling me 
back by the skin of the neck, like a dog. " By Heaven and 
Hell, you've sworn between you to murder that child ! I know 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 65 

how it IB, now, that he is always out of my way. But, with the 
help of Satan, I shall make you swallow the vfering knife, 
Nelly ! you needn't laugh ; for I've just crammed Kenneth 
head downmost, in the Blackhorse marsh ; and two is the same 
as one — and I want to kill some o£ you ; I shall. have no rest 
dill do!" 

^ But I don't like the carving knife, Mr. Hindley,'' I an- 
swered ; '* it has been cutting red herrings — I'd rather be shot 
if you please." 

<* You'd rather be damned I" he said, " and so you shall. No 
law in England can hinder a man fixym keeping his house 
decent, and mine's abominable! open your mouth." 

He held the knife in his hand, and pushed its point between 
my teeth : but, for my put, I was never much afraid of his 
vagaries. I spat out, and affirmed it tasted detestably — ** I would 
not take it on any acccmnt." 

" Oh !" said he, releasing me, '* I see that hideous little villain 
is not Hareton — I beg your pardon, Nell — ^if it be, he deserves 
flaying 'alive for not running to welcome me, and for screaming 
as if I were a goblin. Unnatural cub, come hither ! I'll teach 
thee to impose on a good-hearted, deluded ^Either. Now don't 
you think the lad would be handsomer cropped 1 It makes a 
dog fiercer, and I love something fierce, (jret me a pair of 
scissors — something fierce and trim ! Besides, it's infernal 
affectation — devilish conceit, it is to cherish our ears — we're 
asses enough vntbout them. Hush, child, hush ! well then, it is 
my darling ! wishtj.dry thy eyes — ^there's a joy ; kiss me !' What ! 
it won't 1 Kiss me, Hareton ! Damn thee, kiss me ! By God, 
as if I would rear such a monster ! As sure as I'm Hving, I'U 
break the brat's neck." 

Poor Hareton was squalling and kicking in his Other's arms 
with all his might; and redoubled his yells when he carried 
him up-stairs and lifted him over the bannister. I cried out 
that he would frighten the child into fits, and ran to rescue him. 

As I reached them, Hindley leaned forward on the rails to 
listen to a noise below; almost forgetting what he had in his hands. 

" Who is that 1" he asked, hearing some one approaching the 
stair's foot. 

I leaned forward, also, for the purpose of signing to Heath- 
cliff, whose step I recognized, not to come fiirther ; and, at the 
instant when my eye quitted Hareton, he gave a sudden spring, 
delivered himself from the careless grasp that held him, anc fell. 



66 WUTHER IN 6 HEIGHTS. 

There was scarcely time to experience a thrill of hoiror 
before we saw that the little wretch was safe. Heathcliff arrived 
underneath just st the critical nooraent; by a natural impulse he 
arrested his descent, and setting him on his feet, looked up to 
discover the author of the accident. 

A miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket £>r five 
shillings, and finds next day ho has lost in the bargain five 
thousand pounds, could not show a blanker countenance than 
he did on beholding the figure of Mr. EamshaW above. It 
expressed, plainer tiian words could do, the intensest angaish 
at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his own 
revenge. Had it been dark I dare say he would have tried to 
remedy the mistake by smashing Hareton's skull on the steps ; 
but we witnessed his salvation; and I was presently below, 
with my precious charge pressed to my heart. 

Hindley descended more leisurely, sobered and abashed. 

" It is your fault, Ellen,'* he said, " you should have kept him 
out of sight; you should have taken him from me!^ Is he 
injured any where V 

" Injured !" I cried, angrily, " If he's not killed he'll be an 
idiot ! Oh I I wonder his mother does not rise fix>m her grave 
to see how you use him. You're worse than a heathen — ^treat- 
ing your own flesh and blood in that manner !" 

He attempted to touch the child, who on finding himself with 
me, sobbed off his terror directly. At the first finger his father 
laid on him, however, he shrieked again louder than before, and 
struggled as if he would go into convulsions.. 

" You shall not meddle with him !" I continued, " He hates 
you — they all hate you — ^that's the truth ! A happy family you 
have ; and a pretty state you're come to !" 

•* I shall come to a prettier, yet ! Nelly," laughed the mis- 
guided man, recovering his hardness. " At present, convey 
yourself and him away^— »And, hark you, Heathcliff ! clear you 
too, quite from my reach and hearing...! wouldn't murder you 
to-night, unless, perhaps, I set the house on fire ; but that's as 
my fancy goes — " 

While saying this he took a pint bottle of brandy firom the 
dresser, and poured some into a tumbler. 

" Nay don't !" I entreated, " Mr. Hindley, do take warning. 
Have mercy on this unfi:)rtunate boy, if you care nothing for 
yourself!" 

" Any one will do better for him than I shall." he answered. 



WUTHERIN6 H^ I O H T 8. 67 

"Have mercy on your own soul!" I said, endeavoring to 
snatch the glass from his hand. 

" Not I ! on the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in 
sending it to perdition, to punish its Maker,'* exclaimed the 
blasphemer, " Here's to its hearty damnation !" 

He drank the spirits, and impatiently bade us go ; termina- 
ting his command with a sequel of horrid imprecations, too bad 
to repeat or remember. 

" It's a pity he can not kill himself with drink," observed 
Heathclifi^ muttering an echo of curses back, ^hen the door 
viras shut . " He's doing his veiy utmost ; but his constitution 
defies him. — Mr. Kenneth says ne would wager his mare that 
he'n outlive any man on this side Gimmeiton, and go to the 
grave a hoary sinner ; unless some happy chance, out of the 
common course, befall him." 

I went into the kitchen, and sat down to lull my little lamb 
to sleep. Heathcliff^ as I thought, walked through to the bam. 
It turned out aHerward that he only got as far as the other side 
of the settle, when he flung himself on a bench by the wall, 
removed from the fire, and remained silent. 

I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song 
that began, 

" It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat, 
The ndther beneath the mools heard that," 

when Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub from her 
room, put her head in, and whispered, 

" Are you alone, Nelly V 

" Yes, Miss," I replied. 

She entered and approached the hearth. I, supposing she 
was going to say something, looked up. The expression of her 
face seemed disturbed and anxious. Her lips were half asunder, 
as if she meant to speak; and she drew a breath, but it escaped 
in a sigh instead of a sentence. 

I resumed my song: not having forgotten her recent be- 
havior. 

" Where's Heathcliff ]" she said, interrupting me. 

" About his work in the stable," was my answer. 

He did not contradict me ; perhaps, he had fallen into a doze. 

There followed another long pause, during which I per- 
ceived a drop or two trickle from Catherine's cheek to the 



68 WUTHEjLING HEIGHTS. 

** Is she sorry for her shameful conduct ?" I asked myself. 
" That will be a novelty, but, she may come to the point as she 
will — I shan't help her !" 

No, she felt small trouble regarding any subject save her 
own concerns. 

" Oh, dear !" she cried at last. " I am very unhappy !" 

"A pity," observed I, "you're hard to please— fio many 
fiiends and so few cares, and can't make yourself content I" 

" Nelly, will you keep a secret for me ]" she pursued, kneel- 
ing down by me and lifting her winsome eyes to my face with 
that sort of look which turns off bad temper, even when one has 
all the right in the world to indulge it. 

" Is it worth keeping ]" I inquired less sulkily. 

" Yes, and it womes me, and I must let it out ! I want lo 
know what I should do. To-day Edgar Linton has asked me 
to marry him, and I've given him an answer. Now, before I 
tell you whether it was a consent or denial, you tell me which 
it ought to have been." 

"Really, Miss Catherine, how can I know?" I replied. 
" To be sure, considering the exhibition you performed m his 
presence this afternoon, I might say it would be wise to refuse 
him ; since, if he asked you after that, he must either be hope- 
lessly stupid, or a venturesome fool." 

" If you talk so, I won't tell you any more," she returned 
peevishly, rising to her feet ; " I accepted him, Nelly; be quick, 
and say whether I was wi'ong !" 

" You accepted him 1 then what good is it discussing the 
matter ] You have pledged your word, and can not retract." 

" But say whether I should have done so— do !" she ex- 
claimed in an irritated tone ; chafing her hands together and 
firowning. 

" There are many things to be considered before that ques- 
tion can be answered properly," I said sententiously; "first 
and foremost, do you love Mr. Edgar ]" - 

" Who can help it ] of course I do," she answered. 

Then I put her through the following catechism ; for a girF 
of twenty-two it was not injudicious. 

" Why do you love him, Miss Cathy ]" 

" Nonsense, I do— that's sufficient." 

" By no means ; you must say why ]" 

" Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be with." 

" Bad," was my commentary. 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 09 

** And because he is young and cheerfuL" 

"Bad, still." 

" And because he loves me." 

** Ind^erent ; coming there." 

" And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman 
ci the neighborhood, and I shall be proud of having such a 
husband." 

" Worst of all And, now, say how you love him V 

" As every body loves. You're silly, Nelly." 

** Not at alL Answer." 

'* I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, 
and every thing he touches, and every word he says ; I love all 
his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely, and altogether. 
There now!" 

"And why r 

" Nay — ^you are making a jest of it ; it is exceedingly ill- 
natured ! It*s na jest to me !" said the young lady, scowling 
and turning her face to the fire. 

" I*m very far from jesting, Miss Catherine," I replied. " You 
love Mr. Edgar because he is handsome, and young, and cheer- 
ful, and rich, and loves you. The last, however, goes for nothing. 
— You would love him without that, probably, and with it you 
wouldn't, unless he possessed the four former attractions." 

" No, to be sure not-— I should only pity him— hate him, per- 
haps, if he were ugly and a down." 

" But there are several other handsome, rich young men in 
the world ; handsome, possibly, and richer than he is. What 
should hinder you from loving them 1" 

" If there be any, they are out of my way — ^I've seen none 
like Edgar." 

" You may see some ; and he won't always be handsome, 
and young, and may not always be rich." 

" He is now ; and I have only to do with the present. I 
wish you would speak rationally." 

" Well, that settles it. If you have only to do with the present, 
marry Mr. Linton." 

" I don't want your permission for that — ^I shall marry him; 
and yet, you have not told me whether I'm right" 

" Perfectly right ; if people be rig^t to marry only for the 
present. And now let us hear what you are unhappy about 
Your brother will be pleased ; the old lady and gentleman will 
not object, I think ; you will escape from a disorderly, comfort- 



70 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

less borne, into a wealthy, respectable one ; and you love Edgar, 
c^nd Edgar loves you. AH seems smooth and easy — where is 
the obstacle V* 

**Her€/ and hereP^ replied Catherine, striking one hand on 
her forehead and the other on her breast '* In whichever place 
the soul lives — ^in my soul and in my heart, I'm convinced I'm 



wrong 



!»' 



' That's very strange ! I can not make it out." 

" It's my secret ; but if you will not mock at me, I'll explain 
it ; I can't do it distinctly — ^but I'll give you a feeling of how T 
feel." 

She seated herself by me again : her countenance^*ew sadder 
and graver, and her clasped hands trembled. 

" Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams 1" she said sud- 
denly, after some minutes' reflection. 

" Yes, now and then," I answered. 

'' And so do I. I've dreamed in my life dreams that have 
staid with me ever after, and changed my ideas ; they've gone 
through and through me, like wine through water, and altered 
the color of my mind. And this is one— I'm going to tell it — 
but take care not to smile at any part of it." 

"Oh! don't. Miss Catherine!" 1 cried. "We're dismal 
enough without conjuring up ghosts and visions to perplex us. 
Come, come, be merry, and like yourself! Look at little Hare- 
ton — Tie^s dreaming nothing dreary. How sweetly he smiles in 
his sleep !" 

" Yes ; and how sweetly his father curses in his solitude ! 
You remember him, I dare say, when he was just such another 
as that chubby thing — ^nearly as young and innocent. How- 
ever, Nelly, I shall oblige you to listen — it's not long ; and I'va 
no power to be merry to-night." 

" I won't hear it, I won't hear it !" I repeated, hastily. 

I was superstitious about dreams then, and am still; and 
Catherine had an unusual gloom in her aspect, that made me 
dread something from which I might shape a prophecy, and 
foresee a fearful catastrophe. 

She was vexed, but she did not proceed. Apparently taking 
up another subject, she re-commenced in a short time. 

" If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable." 

" Because you are not fit to go there," I answered. " All 
sinners would be miserable in heaven." 

" But it is not for that. I dreamed, once, that I was there." 



WUTHERING HBIGUTJ. 71 

" I tell you I won't hearken to your dreams, Miss Catherine ! 
I'll go to bed," I interrupted again. 

^e laughed, and. held me down, for I made a motion to 
leave my chair. 

" This is nothing," cried she ; '* I was only going to say that 
heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart 
vnth weeping to come back to earth ; and the angels were so 
angry that they flung me out into the middle of. 3ie heath on 
the top of Wuthering Heights ; where I woke sobbing for joy. 
That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. Tve 
no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in 
heaven ; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heath- 
cliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade 
me to marry Heathcliff now ; so he shall never know how I 
love him ; and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but be- 
cause he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are 
made of, his and mine are the same ; and Linton's is as different 
as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire." 

Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff 's pres- 
ence. Having noticed a shght movement, 1 turned my head, 
and saw him rise from the bench, and steal out noiselessly. He 
had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her 
to marry him, and then he staid to hear no farther. 

My companion, sitting on the ground, was prevented by the 
back of the settle from remarking his presence or departure ; 
but I started, and bade her hush. 

" Why 1" she asked, gazing nervously round. 

" Joseph is here," I answered, catching opportunely the roll 
of his cartwheels up the road ; " and Heathcliff vdll come in 
vrith. him. I'm not sure whether he were not at the door this 
moment." 

" Oh, he couldn't overhear me at the door !" said she. " Give 
me Hareton while you get the supper, and when it is ready ask 
me to sup with you. I want to cheat my uncomfortable con- 
science, and be convinced that Heathcliff has no notion of these 
things — he has not, has he ] He does not know what being in 
love is ?" . 

" I see no reason that he should not know as well as you," I 
returned ; " and if you are his choice, he'll be the most unfor- 
tunate creature that ever was bom ! As soon as you become 
Mrs. Linton, he loses friend, and love, and all ! Have you 
considered how you'U bear the separation, and how he'D 



72 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

bear to be quite deserted in the world 1 Because, Miss Cath- 
Sfiinh " 

'* He quite deserted ! we separated !" she exclaimed, witl| an 
acceut of indignation. " Who is to separate us, pray % They'll 
meet the fate of Milo ! Not as long as I live, Ellen — for no 
mortal creature. Every Linton on the face of the earth might 
meJt into nothing, before I could consent to forsake HeathcUff. 
Oh. that's not what I intend — that's not what I mean ! I 
shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were such a price demanded I He'll 
be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime. Edgar must 
shake off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. He wiU, 
when he learns my true feelings toward him. Nelly, I see now, 
you think me a selfish wretch, but did it never strike you that if 
I/eathcliff and I married v^e should be beggars 1 whereas, if I 
cr.arry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of 
viy brother's power." 

"With your husband's money. Miss Catherine?" I asked. 
*' You'll find him not so pliable as you calculate upon ; and, 
»-^ough I'm hardly a judge, I think that's the worst motive 
ou've given yet for being the wife of young Linton." 

" It is not," retorted she, " it b the best ! The others were 
-lie satisfaction of my whims ; and for Edgar's sake, too, to 
satisfy him. This is for the sake of one who comprehends in 
his person my feelings to Edgar and myself. I can not expr^ 
it ; but surely you and every body have a notion that there is, 
or should be, an existence of yours beyond you. What were 
the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here ? My 
great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, 
and I watched and felt each ftom the beginning; my great 
thought in livine is himself. If all else perished, and he re- 
mained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, 
and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty 
stranger. I should not seem a part of it; My love for Linton 
is like the foliage in the woods : time will change it, I'm well 
aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff 
resembles the eternal rocks beneath : a source of little visible 
delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff— he's always^ 
always in my mind^not as a pleasure, any more than I am al- 
ways a pleasure to myself — but as my own being ; so don't talk 
of our separation again — ^it is impracticable ; and ^' 

She paused, and hid her face in the folds of my gown ; but I 
jerked it forcibly away. I was out of patience with her folly. 



WUTHEftlNO HBIGHT8. 73 

''If I can make any sense of your nonsense, miss/*' I said 
** it only goes to convince me that you are ignorant of dio duties 
you undertake in marrying, or else that you are a wicked, un- 
principled girL But trouble me with no more secrets ; Til not 
promise to keep them." 

" You'll keep that V she asked, eagerly. 

" No, I'll not promise," I repeated. 

She was about to insist, when the entrance of Joseph finished 
our conversation ; and Catherine removed her seat to a comer, 
and nurse^ Hareton, while I made the supper. 

After it was cooked, my fellow-servant and I began to quar- 
rel who should carry some to Mr. Hindley ; and we didn't settl% 
it till all was nearly cold Then we came to the agreement that 
we would let him ask, if he wanted any, for we feared particu- 
larly to go into his presence when he had been some time alone. 

" Und hah isn't that nowt comed in frough th' field, be this 
time ? What is he abaht 1 girt eedle seeght V* demanded the 
old man, looking round for Heathcliff. 

" I'll call him," I replied. " He's in the bam, I've no doubt." 

I went and called, but got no answer. On returning, 
I whispered to Catherine that he had heard a good part of 
what she said, I was sure y s^nd told how I saw him quit the 
kitchen just as she complained of her brother's conduct regard- 
ing him. 

She jumped up in a fine fiight— flung Hareton upon the set- 
tle, and ran to seek for her friend herself; not taking leisure to 
consider why she was so flurried, or how her talk would have 
afifected him. 

She was absent such a while that Joseph proposed we should 
wait no longer. He cunningly conjectured they were staying 
away in order to avoid hearing his protracted blessing. They 
were " ill eneugh for ony fahl manners," he affirmed. And, on 
dieir behalf, he adde^ that night a special prayer to the usual 
quarter of an hour's supplication before meat ; and would have 
tacked another to the end of the grace, had not his young mis- 
tress broken in upon him with a hurried command that he muse 
run down the road, and wherever Heathclifi* had rambled, find 
and make him.re-enter directly ! 

** I want to speak to him, and I must before I go up-stairs,' 
she said. " Ana the gate is open, he is somewhere out of hear- 
ing ; for he would not reply, though I shouted at the top of the 
fold as loud as I could." 

D 



74 VrUTHBKINO HKIOHT8* 



Joseph ob|ected at fint ; the was too much in earnest, how« 
orer, to suflfer contradiction ; and at last he placed his hat on 
his head, and walked grumbling forth. 

Meantime Catherine paced up and down the floor, exclaim*- 
ing— 

** I wonder where he is — I wonder where he can he ! What 
did I say, Nelly \ I've forgotten. Was he vexed at my bad 
humoir this afternoon 1 Dear ! tell me what I've said to grieve 
him \ I do wish he'd come. I do wish he would i" 

<* What a noise for nothing I" I cried, though rat]|Br uneasy 
myself. ^ What a trifle scares you ! It's surely no great cause 
ff alarm that Heathcli£f should take a moonlight saunter on the 
moors, or even lie, too sulky to speak to us, in the hay-loft. I'll 
engage he's lurking there. See, if I don't ferret him out i" 

I departed to renew my search; its result was disappointment^ 
and Joseph's quest ended in the same. 

"Yon lad gets vrar un war!" observed he on re-entering. 
" He's left th' yate ut t' full swing, and Miss's pony has trodden 
dahn two rigs uh com, un plottered through, raight o'er intuh t' 
meadow! Hahsomdiver, t' maister 'ull play t' divil to-mom, 
and he'll do weel. He's patience itsseln yr^ sich careless, ofiald 
craters-— patience itsseln he is ! Bud he'll nut be soa alius — 
yah's see, all on ye ! Yah mun'n't drive him aht uf his heead 
fiir nowt !" 

'* Have you found Heathclifl*, you ass?" interrupted Catherine. 
" Have you been looking for him, as I ordered 1" 

" Aw sod more likker look for th' horse," he replied. "It 'ud 
be tuh more sense. But, aw can look for norther horse, nur 
man uf a neeght loike this-— as black as t* chimbley ! und Heath- 
clifTs noan t*' chap tuh coom ut maw whistle— -happen he'll be 
less hard uh hearine wi' ye /" 

It WOM a very dai^ evening for summer ; the clouds appeared 
inclined to thunder, and I said we had better all sit down ; the 
approaching rain would be certain to bring him hcwne without 
further trouble. 

However, Catherine would not be persuaded into tranquillity. 
She kept vtrandering to and fro, flrom the gate to the door, in a 
state of agitation which permitted no repose : and at length took 
up a permanent situation on one side of the wall, near the road ; 
where, heedless of my expostulations, and the growling thunder, 
and the great dropa that began to plash around her, she re- 
mained, calling at intervals, and then listening, and then crying 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 75 

•utright. She beat HareCon, or any child, at a good, passionate 
fit of crying. 

About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling 
over the Heights in full fury. There was a violent wind as well 
as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree off at the 
comer of the building ; a huge bough fell across the roof, and 
knocked down a portion of the east chimney-stack, sending a 
clatter of stones and soot into the kitclien fire. 

We thought a bolt had fallen in the middle of us, and Joseph 
swung upon his knees, beseeching the Lord to remember tne 
Patriarchs, Noah and Lot ; and, as in former times, spare the 
righteous, though he smote the ungodly. I felt some sentimeiifl 
that it must be a judgment on us also.^ The Jonah, in my mind, 
was Mr. Eamshaw, and I shook the handle of his den that I 
might ascertain if he were yet living. He replied audibly 
enough, in a fashion which made my companion vociferate mq;i*e 
clamorously than before, that a wide distinction might be drawn 
between saints like himself and sinners like his master. But 
the uproar passed away in twenty minutes, leaving us all un- 
harmed, excepting Cathy, who got thoroughly drenched for her 
obstinacy in refusing to take shelter, and standing bonnetless 
and shawlless to catch as much water as she could with her hair 
and clothes. 

She came in, and lay down on the settle, all soaked as she 
was, turning her face to the back, and putting her hands be- 
fore it. 

" Well, Miss !" I exclaimed, touching her shoulder; " you are 
not bent on getting your death, are you ? Do you know what 
o'clock it is 1 Half-past twelve. Come ! come to bed ; there's 
no use waiting longer for that foolish boy— he'll be gone to Gim- 
merton, and he'll stay there now. He guesses we shouldn't wake 
fi:>r him dll this late hour; at least, he guesses that only Mr* 
Hindley would be up ; and he'd rather avoid having the door 
opened by the master." 

" Nay, nay, he's noan at Gimmerton !" said Joseph. " Aw's 
niver wonder, bud he's at t' bothom uf a bog-hoile. This visita- 
tion wom't for nowt, und aw wod hev ye tub look aht, Miss— 
yah muh be t' next. Thank Hivin for all ! AH warks togither 
for gooid tub them as is chozzen, and piked aht fi*oo' th' rub* 
bidge ! Yah knaw whet t* Scriptui-e ses — " 

And he began quoting several texts — referring us to the chap- 
ters and verses where we might find them. 



76 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

I, after having vainly begged the willful eirl to rise and re- 
move her wet things, left hin* preaching, and her shivering, and 
betook myself to bed with little Hareton ; who slept as fast as 
if every one had been sleeping round him. 

I heard Joseph read on a while afterward; then I distin- 
guished his slow step on the ladder, and then I dropped 
asleep. 

Coming down somewhsd later than usual, I saw, by the sun- 
beams piercing the chinks of the shutters, Miss Catherine still 
seated near the fireplace. The house door was ajar too ; light 
entered from its unclosed windows ; Hindley had come out, and 
itood on the kitchen hearth, haggard and drowsy. 

"What ails you, Cathy j" he was saying when I entered; 
** you look as dismal as a drowned whelp. Why are you so 
damp and pale, child V* 

" I've been wet," she answered reluctantly ; " and I'm cold, 
that's all." 

" Oh, she is naughty V* I cried, perceiving the master to be 
tolerably sober; " She got steeped in the shower of yesterday 
evening, and there she has sat, die night through, and I couldn't 
prevail on her to stir." 

Mr. Eamshaw stared at us in surprise. " The night through," 
he repeated. " What kept her up ? not fear of the thunder, 
surely 1 That was over, hours since." 

Neither of us wished to mention Heathcliflfs absence, as long 
as we could conceal it ; so, I replied, I didn't know how she 
took it into her head to sit up ; and she said nothing. 

The morning was fresh and cool ; I threw back the lattice, 
and presently the room was filled with sweet scents from the 
garden : but Catherine called peevishly to me. 

'* Ellen, shut the window. I'm starving!" And her teeth 
chattered as she shrunk closer to the almost extinguished em- 
bers. 

" She's ill," said Hindley, taking her wrist, "I suppose that's 
the reason she would not go to bed. Damn it ! I don't want 
to be troubled with more sickness here. What took her into 
the rain r 

*' Running after t'lads, as usuald !" croaked Joseph, catching 
an opportunity, from our hesitation, to thrust in his evil tongue. 

** It aw wur yah, maister, aw'd just slam t'boards i' their 
faces all on 'em, gentle and simple ! Never a day ut yah're 
off, but yon cat uh Linton comes sneaking hither — and Mist 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 77 

Nelly shoe's a fine lass ! shoo sits watching for ye i' t'kitchen ; 
and as yah're in at one door, he*s aht at t'other. Und, then, 
wer grand lady goes a coorting uf hor side ! Its honny be- 
havior, lurking amang t'fields, after twelve ut' night, wi that 
fahl, flaysome divil uf a gipsy, HeathcHff! They think aw^m 
blind; but aw'm noan, now't ut t'soart! Aw seed young 
Linton, boath coming and going, and aw seed yah (directing 
his discourse to me). Yah gooid fur nowt, slattenly witch ! nip 
up and bolt intuh th' hahs, t' minute yah heard t'maister's horse 
fit clatter up t'road. 

" Silence, eavesdropper !" cried Oatherine. " None of your 
insolence before me ! Iklgar Linton came yesterday by chance, 
Hindley : and it was I who told him to be off: because I knew 
you would not like to have met him as you were." ' 

"You lie, Cathy, no doubt," answered her brother, "and 
you are a confi>unded simpleton ! But never mind Linton at 
present. Tell me, were you not with Heathcliff last night? 
Speak the truth now. You need not be afraid of harming him. 
Though I hate him as much as ever, he did me a good turn a 
short time ago that will make my conscience tender of break- 
ing his neck. To prevent it I shall send him about his business 
tins very morning; and after he's gone I'd advise you all to 
look sharp. I shall only have the more humor for you !" 

" I never saw Heathcliff last night," answered Catherine, be- 
ginning to sob bitterly : " and if you do turn him out of doors 
I'll go with him. But perhaps you'll never have an opportunity 
— perhaps he's gone." Here she burst into uncontrollable grief, 
and the remainder of her words were inarticulate. 

Hindley lavished on her a torrent of scornful abuse, and bid 
her get to her room immediately, or she shouldn't cry fear 
nothing ! I obliged her to obey ; and I shall never forget what a 
scene she acted when we reached her chamber. It terrified me. 
I thought she was going mad, and I begged Joseph to run for 
the doctor. 

It proved the commencement of delirium ; Mr. Kenneth, as 
Boon as he saw her, pronounced her dangerously ill; she had a 
fever. 

He bled her, and he told me to let her live on whey and water- 
gruel ; and take care she did not throw herself down stairs or 
out of the window; and then he left, for he had enough to do in 
the parish, where two or three miles was the ordinary distanco 
between cottage and cottage. 



78 WUTHE&ING HEIGHTS. 



Though I can not say I made a gentle nurte^ and Joseph and 
the master were no better; and though our patient was as weari- 
some and as headstrong as a patient could be, she weathered 
it through. 

Old Mrs. Linton paid us several yisits, to be sure, and set 
diings to rights, and scolded and ordered us all; and when 
Catherine was convalescent, she insisted on conveying her to 
Thrushcross Grange; for which deliverance we were very grate- 
ful But the poor dama had reason to repent of her kindness ; 
she and her husband took the fever, and (Hed within a few days 
of each other. 

Our young lady returned to us saucier and more passionate 
and haughtier than ever. Heathcliff had never been heard of 
since the evening of the thunder-storm ; and one day I had the 
misfortune, when she had provoked me exceedingly, to lay the 
blame of his disappearance on her (where indeed it belonged, 
as she well knew). From that period, for several months, she 
ceased to hold any communication with me, save in the relation 
of a mere servant. Joseph fell under a ban also; he would 
speak his mind, and lecture her all liie same as if she were a 
little girl ; and she esteemed herself a woman, and our mistress ; 
and thought that her recent illness gave her a claim to be treated 
with consideration. Then the doctor had said that she would 
not bear crossing much ; she ought to have her own way ; and 
it was nothing less than murder, in her eyes, for any one to 
presume to stand up and contradict her. 

From Mr. Eamshaw and his companions she kept aloof; 
and, tutored by Kenneth and by serious threats of a fit that 
often att^ided her rages, her brother allowed her whatever she 
pleased to demand, and generally avoided aggravating her fiery 
temper. He was rather too indulgent in humoring her caprices ; 
not fi-om afiection, but from pride ; he wished earnestly to see 
her bring honor to the family by an alliance with the Lintons ; 
and as long as she let him alone, she might trample us like 
slaves, for aught he cared ! 

Edgar Linton, as multitudes have been before, and will be 
after him, was infatuated ; and believed himself the happiest 
man alive on the day he led her to Gimmerton chapel, three 
years subsequent to his father's death. 

Much against my inclination, I was persuaded to leave 
Wuthering Heights and accompany her here. Little Hareton 
was nearly five years old, and I had just begun to teach him his 



WUTHBRING HEIGHT 8. 79 

letters. We aiade a lad parting, but Catliarine's tears were 
more power&l thau ours. When I refused to go, and when 
she found her entreaties did not move me, she went lamenting 
to her husband and brother. The former offered me munificent 
wages ; the latter ordered me to pack up — he wanted no women 
in the house, he said,' now that there was no mistress ; and as 
to Hareton, the curate should take him in hand, by and by. 
And so I had but one choice left — ^to do as I was ordered. I 
told the master he got rid of all decent people only to run to 
ruin a little faster ; I kissed Hareton good by ; and, since then, 
he has been a stranger, and it's very queer to think it, but IVe 
no doubt, he has completely forgotten all about Ellen Dean, 
and that he was ever more than aU the world to her, and she to 
himl^ — 

Atthis point of the housekeeper's story she chanced to glance 
toward the time-piece over the chimney; and was in amaze- 
ment, on seeing the minute-hand measure half-past one. She 
would not hear <^ staying a second longer. In truth, I felt 
rather disposed to defer the sequel of her narrative, myself: and 
now, that she is vanished to her rest, and I have meditated for 
another hour or two, I shall summon courage to go alfto. in 
spite of aching laziness of head and limbs. 



CHAPTER X. 

A CHARMING introduction to a hermit's life! Four weeks' 
torture, tossing, and sickness! Oh, these bleak winds, and 
bitter, northern skies, and impassable roads, and dilatory coun- 
try surgeons ! And, oh, this dearth of the human physiognomy, 
and, worse than all, the terrible intimation of Kenneth that I 
need not expect to be out of doors till spring ! 

Mr. Heathcliff has just honored me with a call. About seven 
days ago he sent me a brace of grouse— -the last of the season. 
Scoundrel! He is not altogether guiltless in this illness of 
mine; and that I had a great mind to tell him. But, alas! 
how could I offend a man who was charitable enough to sit at 
my bedside a good hour, and talk on some other subject than 
pills and draughts, blisters and leeches 1 



CO WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

This is quite an easy interval. I am too weak to read, yet 1 
feel as if I €Ould enjoy something interesting. Why not have 
up Mrs. Dean to finish her tale 1 I can recollect its chief inci- 
dents, as far as she had gone. Yes, I rememher her hero had 
run off, and never been heard of for three years : and the 
heroine was married. I'll ring ; she'll be' delighted to find me 
capable of talking cheerfully. 

Mrs. Dean came. 

" It wants twenty minutes, sir, to taking (he medicine," she 
commenced. 

" Away, away vnth it !" I replied ; ** I desire to have—** 

" The doctor says you must drop the powders." 

" With aU my heart ! Don't interrupt me. Come and take 
your seat here. Keep your fingers from that bitter phalanx of 
phials. Draw your knitting out of your pocket — ^that will do— 
now continue the history of Mr. Heathcljff, from where you left 
oif, to the present day. Did he finish his education on the Con- 
tinent, and come back a gentleman 1 or did he get a sizer's 
place at college 1 or escape to America, and earn honors by 
fii-awing blood firora his foster country 1 or make a fortune more , 
promptly on the English highways 1" 

" He may have done a little in all these vocations, Mr. Lock- 
wood ; but I couldn't give my word for any. I stated befi:)re 
that I didn't know how he gained his money ; neither am I 
n ware of the means he took to raise his mind firom the savage 
ignorance into which it was sunk; but, vdth your leave, I'll 
])roceed in my own fashion, if you think it will amuse, and 
not weary you. Are you feeling better this morning V* 

"Much."— 

That's good news. I got Miss Catherine and myself to 
Thrushcross Grange ; and, to my agreeable disappointment, she 
l>ehaved infinitely better than I dared to expect. She seemed 
almost over fond of Mr. Linton; and even to his sister she 
rtbowed plenty of affection. They were both very attentive to 
her comfort, certainly. It was not the thorn bending to the 
honeysuckles, but tibe honeysuckles embracing the thorn. 
There were no mutual concessions; one stood erect, and 
the others yielded ; and who can be ill-natured and bad-tem- 
pered when they encounter neither opposition nor indifference 1 

I observed that Mr. Edgar had a deep-rooted fear of rufBing 
her humor. He concealed it from her ; but if ever he heard 
me answer sharply, or saw any other servant grow cloudy at 



WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS. 81 

some imperious order of hers, he would ^ow his trouble by a 
frown of displeasure that never darkened on his own account. 
He, many a time, spoke sternly to me about my pertness ; and 
averred diat the stab of a knife could not inflict a worse pang 
than he suffered at seeing his lady vexed. 

Not to grieve a kind master, I learned to be less touchy ; and, 
for the space of half a year, th^ gunpowder lay as harmless as 
sand, because no fire came near to explode it Catherine had 
seasons of gloom and silence, now and then; they were re- 
spected with sympathizing silence by her husband, who as- 
cribed them to an alteration in her constitution, produced by 
her perilous illness, as she was never subject to depression 
of spirits before. The return of sunshine was welcomed by 
answering sunshine from him. I believe I may assert that 
they were really in possession of deep and growing happi- 



It ended. Well, we tmist be for ourselves in the long run ; 
the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the 
domineering— and it ended when circumstances caused each to 
feel the one's interest was not the chief consideration in the 
other's thoughts. 

On a mellow evening in September, I was coming from the 
garden with a heavy basket of^ apples which I had been gather- 
ing. It had got dusk, and the moon looked over the high wall 
of the court, causing undefined shadows to lurk in the comers 
of the numerous projecting portions of the building. I set my 
burden on the , house steps by the kitchen door, and lingered 
to rest, and draw in a few more breaths of the sofb, sweet air 
my eyes were on the moon, and my back to the entrance, when 
I heard a voice behind me say — 

" Nelly, Is that youT 

It was a deep voice, and foreign in tone; yet there was 
something in the manner of pronouncing my name which made 
it sound familiar. I turned about to discover who spoke, 
fearfully, for the doors were shut, and I had seen nobody on 
approaching the steps. 

Something stirred in the porch ; and moving nearer, I dis- 
tinguished a tall man, dressed in dark clothes, with dark face 
and hair. He leaned against the side, and held his fingers on 
the latch, as if intending to open for himself. 

" Who can it be V I thought. " Mr. Eamshaw 1 Oh, no 1 
The voice has no resemblance to his." 



82 WITTHBEINO HBIOHT8. 

" I have waited here an hour/' he resumed, while I contin- 
ued staring ; '* and the whole of that time all round has heen 
as still as death, I dared not enter. You do not know me 1 
Look, I'm not a stranger !" 

A ray fell on his features ; the cheeks were sallow, and half 
covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes 
deep set and singular. I rem^bered the eyes. 

" What !*• I cried, uncertain whether to regard him as* a 
worldly visitor, and I raised my hands in amazement. " What ! 
you come back % Is it really you ? Is it ]" 

" Yes, Heathcliff,** he replied, glancing from me up to the 
windows which reflected a score of glittering moonp, but 
showed no lights from within. ** Are they at home — ^where is 
she ? Nelly, you are not glad — you needn't be so disturbed. 
Is she here 1 Speak ! I want to have one word with her — 
your mistress. Go, and say some person from Gimmerton de- 
sires to see her." 

" How will she take it V I exclaimed, " what will she do % 
The surprise bewilders me^t will put her out of her head ! 
And you are Heathcliff 1 But altered ! Nay, there's no com- 
prehending it. Have you been for a soldier 1" 

•* Go, and carry my message," he interrupted, impatiently ; 
Fmin hell till you do!" 

He lifled the latch, and I entered; but when I got to the 
parlor where Mr. and Mrs. Linton were, I could not persuade 
myself to proceed. 

At length, I resolved on making an excuse to ask if they 
would have the candles lighted, and I opened the door. 

They sat together in a window whose lattice lay back 
against the wall, and displayed beyond the garden trees and 
the wild green park, the valley of Gimmerton, with* a long line 
of mist winding neai'ly to ite top (for very soon after you pass 
the chapel, as you may have noticed, the slough that runs fi'ora 
the marshes joins a beck which follows the bend of the glen) ; 
Wuthering Heighte rose above this silent vapor, but our old 
house was invisible— it rather dips down on the other side. - 

Both the room, and its occupants, and the scene they gazed 
on, looked wondrously peaceful. I shrank reluctantly from 
performing my errand ; and was actually going away, leaving it 
unsaid, afler having put my question about the candles, when a 
sense of my folly compelled me to return, and mutterf 

** A person from Gimmerton wishes Ig see yoa, ma'am." 



WUTHBRINOHEI6HTS. 98 

** What does he want ? asked Mrs. Linton. 

" I did not question him," I answered. 

** Well, close the cartains, Nelly," she said, " and bring up 
tea. 1*11 be back again directly." 

She quitted the apartment ; Mr. Edgar inquired carelessly, 
who it was? 

'' Some one the mistress does not expect," I replied. '* That 
Heathclif, you recollect him, sir, who used to live at Mr. Earn* 
Shaw's." 

** What, the gipsy — ^the plough-boy V he cried. " Why did 
you not say so to Catherine ]" 

** Hush ! you must not call him by diose names, master," I 
said. " She'd be sadly grieved to hear you. She was nearly 
heart-broken when he ran off; I guess his return will make a 
jubilee to her." 

Mr. Linton walked to a window on the other side of the 
room that overlooked the court He unfastened it, and leaned 
out. I suppose they w^re below, for he exclaimed quickly, 

*< Don't stand there, love ! Bring the person in, if it be any 
one particular.*' 

Ere long, I heard the click of the latch, and Catherine flew 
up-stairs, breathless and wild, too excited to show gladness; 
indeed, by her face, you would rather have surmised an awful 
calamity. 

'* C^, Edgar, Ed^r I" she panted, flinging her arms around 
his neck. - " Oh, Edgar, darling ! Heathcliff 's come back — ^he 
is !" And she tightened her embrace to a squeeze. 

" WeU, well," cried her husband, crossly, " don't strangle 
me for that ! He never struck me as such a marvelous trea- 
sure. There is no need to be fi-antic !" 

" I know you didn't like him," she answered, repressing a 
little the intensity of her delight. " Yet for my sake, you must 
be friends now. Shall I tell him to come up V 

" Here," he said, " into the parlor 1" 

"Where else?" she asked. 

He looked vexed, and suggested the kitchen as a more suita- 
ble place for him. 

Mrs. Linton eyed him with a droll expression-^half angry, 
half laughing at his fastidiousness. 

** No," she added, after a while, « I cannot sit in the kitchen. 
Set two tables here, Ellen, one for your master and Miss Isa* 
bella, being gentry ; tl^e other for Heathcliff and myself, being 



64 WUTHERINO HEIOHT8. 



of the lower orders. Will that please you dear 1 Or must I 
have a fire lighted elsewhere 1 If so, give directions. Ill 
run down and secure my guest. I'm afraid the joy is too great 
to be real !" 

She was about to dart off aeain ; but Edgar arrested her. 

" You bid him step up/' he said, addressing me, '* and, 
Catherine, try to be glad, wdthout being absurd ! The whole 
household need not vdtness the sight of your welcoming a run- 
away servant as a brother." 

I descended, and found Headicliff waiting under the porch, 
evidently anticipating an invitation to enter. He followed my 
guidance, vnthout waste of words ; and I ushei'ed him into the 
presence of the master and mistress, whose flushed cheeks be- 
trayed signs of warm talking. But the lady's glowed vdth 
another feeling when her friend appeared at the door; she 
sprang forward, took both his hands, and led him to Linton; 
and then she seized Linton's reluctant fingers, and crushed them 
into his. 

Now fully revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed 
more than ever, to behold the transformation of Heathcliff. He 
had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man ; beside whom my 
master seemed quite slender and youthHke. His upright car- 
riage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. His 
countenance was much older in expression and decision of fea- 
ture than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no 
marks of former degradation. A half-civilized ferocity lurked 
yet in the depressed brows, and eyes full of black fire, but it 
was subdued; and his manner was even dignified, quite 
divested of roughness though too stem for grace. 

My master's surprise, equaled or exceeded mine ; he re- 
mained for a minute at a loss how to address the plough-boy, as 
he had called him ; Heath cliff dropped his slight hand, and 
stood looking at him coolly till he chose to speak. 

" Sit down, sir," he said, at length. " Mrs. Linton, recalling 
old times, would have me give you a cordial reception, and, of 
course, I am gratified when any thing occurs to please her." 

" And I also," answered Heathcliff, " especially if it be any 
^ing in which I have a part. I shall stay an hour or two 
willingly." 

He took a seat opposite Catherine, who kept her gaze fixed 
on him as if she feai'ed he would vanish were she to remove it. 
He did not often raise his to her ; a quick glance now and then 



WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS* 85 

sufficed ; but it flashed back, each time more confidently, the 
undisguised delight he drank from hers. 

They were too much absorbed in their mutual joy to suffer 
embarrassment ; not so Mr. Edgar, he grew pale with pure an- 
noyance, a feeling that reached its climax when his lady rose— 
and stepping across the rug, seized Heathdiff's hands again, and 
laughed like one beside herself. 

** I shall think it a dream to-morrow !" she cried, " I shall 
not be able to believe that I have seen, and touched, and spoken 
to you once more— and yet, cruel Heathcliff! you don't deserve 
this welcome. To be absent and silent for three years, and 
never to think of me !" 

" A little more than you have thought of me !" he murmured. 
** I heard of your maiTiage, Cathy, not long since ; and, while 
waiting in the yard below, I meditated this plan— just to have 
one glimpse of your face— a stare of surprise, perhaps, and pre- 
tended pleasure ; afterward settle my score with Hindley ; and 
then prevent the law by doing execution on myself. Your wel- 
come has put these ideas out of my mind ; but beware of meet- 
ing me with another aspect next time ! Nay, you'll not drive 
me off again. You were really sorry for me, were you 1 Well, 
there was a cause. I've fought through a bitter life since I last 
heard your voice, and you must forgive me, for I struggled only 
for you!" 

'* Catherine, unless we are to have cold tea, please to come to 
the table," interrupted Linton, striving to preserve his ordinary 
tone, and a due measure of politeness. ** Mr. Heathcliff will 
have a long walk, wherever he may lodge to-night ; and I'm 
thirsty." 

She took her post before the urn ; and Miss Isabella came, 
summoned by the bell : then, having handed their chairs for- 
ward, I left the To6m. 

The meal hardly endured ten minutes. Catherine's cup was 
never filled, she could neither eat, nor drink. Edgar had made 
a slop in the saucer, and scarcely swallowed a mouthful. 

Their guest did not protract his stay, that evening, above an 
nour longer. I asked, as he departed, if he went to Gimmerton 1 

•* No, to Wuthering Heights," he answered, " Mr. Eamshaw 
invited me when I called this morning." 

Mr. Eainshaw invited him ! and he called on Mr. Eamshaw f 
I pondered this sentence painfully, after he was gone. Is ho 
turning out a bit of a hypocrite, and coming into the country to 



86 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 



work mischief under a cloak ? I mused — ^I had a presentiment, 
in the bottom of my heart, that he had better have remained 
away. 

About the middle of the' ni^t, I was wakened from my fitst 
nap by Mrs. Linton gliding into my chamber, taking a seat on 
my bed-side, and pulling me by the hair to rouse me. 

" I can not rest, Ellen ;" she said by way of apology. "And 
I want some living creature to keep me company in my happi- 
ness ! Edgar is sulky, because I'm glad of a thing that does 
not interest hinu He refuses to open his mouth, except to utter 
pettish, silly speeches ; and he affirmed I was cruel and selfish 
for wishing to talk when he was so sick and sleepy. He al* 
ways contrives to be sick at the least cross ! I gave a few sen- 
tences of conmiendation to HeathclifiT, and he, either for a head- 
ache or a pang of envy, began to cry ; so I got up and left him." 

** What use is it praising HeathclifiT to him 1" I answered, 
" As lads they had an aversion to each other, and HeathclifiT 
would hate just as much to hear him praised — it's human nature. 
Let Mr. Linton alone about him, ynlesis you would like an open 
quarrel between them." 

" But does it not show great weakness V* pursued she. " I'm 
not envious — I never feel hurt at the brightness of Isabella's 
yellow hair, and the whiteness of her skin ; at her dainty ele- 
gance, and the fondness all the family exhibit for her. Even 
you, Nelly, if we have a dispute sometimes, you back Isabella 
at once ; and I yield, like a foolish mother. I call her a darling, 
and flatter her into a good temper. It pleases her brother to 
see us cordial, and that pleases me. But they are very much 
alike. They are spoiled children, and fancy the world was 
made for their accommodation ; and, though I humor both, I 
think a smart chastisement might improve fliem, jbAI the same." 

" You're mistaken, Mrs. Linton," said I, " They humor you 
— ^I know what there would be to do if they did not ! You can 
well aflTord to indulge their passing whims, as long sus their busi- 
ness is to anticipate all your desires. You may, however, fall 
out, at last; over something of equal consequence to both sides ; 
and then those you term weak are very capable of being as ob- 
stinate as you !" 

" And then we shall fight to the death, shan't we, Nelly 1" sht 
returned, laughing, ** No ! I tell you, I have such faith in Lin- 
ton's love that I believe I might kill him, and he wouldn't wish 
to retaliate." 



WUTUBRIN6 HBIO hY 6. 87 

I advised her to value him the more for his afiection. 

" I do," she answered, " but he needn't resort to whining for 
trifles. It is childish ; and instead of melting into tears because 
I said that Heathcliff was now worthy of any one's regard, and 
it would honor the first gentleman in the country to be jus friend, 
he ought to have said it for me, and been delighted firom sym- 
pathy. He must get accustomed to him, and he may as well 
like him — considering how Heathcliff has reason to object to 
him, I'm sure he behaved excellently !" 

" What do you think of his going to Wuthering Heights ?" I 
inquired. " He is reformed in every respect, apparently — quite ' 
a Christian— offering the right hand of fellowship to his enemies 
all round I" 

'* He explained it," she replied. " 1 wondered as much as 
you. He said he called to gather information concerning me 
from you, supposing you resided there still; and Joseph told 
Hindley, who came out and fell to questioning him of what he 
had been doing, and how he had been living, and finally desired 
him to walk in. There were some persons sitting at cards — 
Heathcliff joined them ; my brother lost some money to him ; 
and, finding him plentifully supplied, he requested that he would 
come again in the evening, to which he consented. Hindley is 
too reckless to select his acquaintance prudently; he does'nt 
trouble himself to reflect on the causes he might have for mis- 
trusting one whom he has basely injured. But Heathcliff affirms 
his principal reason for resuming a connection with his ancient 
persecutor is a wish to install himself in quarters at walking dis- 
tance from the Grrange, and an attachment to the house where 
we lived together ; and, likewise, a hope that I shall have more 
opportunities of seeing him there than I could have if he settled 
in Gimmerton. He means to offer liberal payment for permis- 
sion to lodge at the Heights ; and doubtless my brother^s covet- 
ousness vnli prompt him to accept the terms ; he was always 
greedy, though what he grasps with one hand, he flings away 
with the other." 

" It's a nice place for a young man to fix his dwelling in !" 
said I, " Have you no fear of the consequences, Mrs. Linton V* 

" None for my fiiend,'.' she replied, " his strong head will keep 
him fi'om danger : a little for Hindley ; but he can't be made 
morally worse than he is ; and I stand between him and bodily 
harm. The event of this evening has reconciled roe to God and 
humanity! I had risen in angry rebellion against providence. 



88 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

Oh, I've endured very, very bitter misery. Nelly, if that crea- 
ture knew how bitter, he'd be ashamed to cloud its removal with 
idle petulance. It was kindness for him which induced me to 
bear it alone : had I expressed the agony I frequently felt, he 
would have been taught to long for its alleviation as ai-dently as 
I. However, it's over, and I'll take no revenge on his folly. I 
can afford to suffer any thing hereafter! Should the meanest 
thing alive slap me on the cheek, I'd not only turn the other, 
but I'd ask pardon for provoking it; and, as a proof, I'll go 
make my peace with Edgar instantly. Good night — I'm an 
angel !" 

In this self-complacent conviction she departed ; and the suc- 
cess of her fulfilled resolution was obvious on the morrow. Mr, 
Linton had not only abjured his peevishness (though his spirits 
seemed still subdued by the exuberance of Catherine's vivaci- 
ty), but he ventured no objection to her taking Isabella vnth her 
to Wuthering Heights in the afternoon ; and she rewarded him 
with such a summer of sweetness and affection in retura, as 
made the house a paradise for several days ; both master and 
servants profiting from the perpetual sunshine. 

Heathcliff — Mr. Heathcliff I should say in fixture — used the 
liberty of visiting at Thmshcross Grange cautiously at first : he 
seemed estimating how far its owner would bear his intrusion. 
Catherine also deemed it judicious to moderate her expressions 
of pleasure in receiving him ; and he gradually established his 
right to be expected. 

He retained a great deal of the reserve for which his boyhood 
was remarkable, and that served to repress all startling demon- 
strations of feeling. My master's uneasiness experienced a lull, 
and further circumstances diverted it into another channel for a 
space. 

His new source of trouble sprang from the not anticipated 
misfortune of Isabella Linton evincing a sudden and irresistible 
attraction toward the tolerated guest. She was at that time a 
eharminff young lady of eighteen ; infantile in manners, though 
possessed of keen wit, keen feelings, and a keen temper, too, if 
irritated. Her brother, who loved her tenderly, was appalled 
at this fantastic preference. Leaving aside the degradation of 
an alliance with a nameless man, and the possible ftict that his 
property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a one's 
power, he had sense to comprehend Heathcliff*s disposition — to 
know that, though his exteiior was altered, his mind was un- 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 89 

cbangeable and unchanged. And he dreaded that mind ; it re- 
volted him ; he shrank forebodingly from the idea of committing 
Isabella to its keeping. 

He would have recoiled still more had he been aware that 
her attachment rose unsolicited, and was bestowed where it 
awakened no reciprocation of sentiment ; for the minute he dis- 
covered its existence, he laid the blame on Heathcliffs deliberate 
designing. 

We had all remarked, during some time, that Miss Linton 
fretted and pined over something. She grew cross and weari- 
some, snapping at and teasing Catherine continually, at the im- 
minent risk of exhausting her limited patience. We excused 
her, to a certain extent, on the plea of ill health ; she was 
dwindling and fading before ovr eyes. But one day when she 
had been peculiarly wayward, rejecting her breakfast, com- 
plaining that the servants did not do what she told them ; that 
the mistress would allow her to be nothing in the house, and 
Edgar neglected her ; that she had caught a cold with the doors 
being left open, and we let the parlor fire go out on purpose to 
vex her; with a hundred yet more frivolous accusations, Mrs. 
Linton peremptorily insisted that she should get to bed ; and, 
having scolded her heartily, threatened to send for the 
doctor. 

Mention of Kenneth caused her to exclaim instantly that her 
health was perfect, and it was only Catherine's harshness which 
made her unhappy. 

" How can you say I am harsh, you naughty fondling V cried 
the mistress, amazed at the unreasonable asseition. ** You aro 
surely losing your reason. When have I been htosh, tefl 
mer 

" Yesterday," sobbed Isabella, " and now !" 

" Yesterday !" said her sister-in-law. " On what occasion 1" 

" In our walk along the moor ; you told me to ramble where 
I pleased, while you sauntered on with Mr. Heathcliff." 

"And that's your notion of harshness?" said Catherine, 
laughing. " It was no hint that your company was superfluous ; 
we didn't care whether you kept with us or not; I merely 
thought Heathcliff's talk would iiave nothing entertaining for 
your ears." 

J* Oh, no,'*^ wept the young lady, " you wished me away be- 
cause you knew I liked to be* there." 

" Is she sane 1" asked Mrs. Linton, appealing to me. " I'll 



W IVUTUKRINQ HEIGHT 8. 

repeat our convereation word for word laabellay and you point 
out any charm it could have had for you/' 

" I don't mind the conversation," she answered : I wanted to 
be with" — 

" Well !" said Catherine, perceiving her hesitate to complete 
the sentence. 

" With him ; and I won't be always sent off !" she continued, 
kindling up. " You are a dog in the manger, Cathy, and desire 
no one to oe loved but yourself!" 

"You are an impertinent little monkey 1" exclaimed Mnu 
Linton, in surprise. ** But I'll not believe this idiocy ! It is 
impossible that you can covet the admiration of Heathcliff 
— that you can consider him an agreeable person ! I hope I 
have misunderstood you, Isabella 1" 

" No, you have not," said the in&tuated girl. " I love him 
more than ever you loved Edgar ; and he might love me if you 
would let him !" 

" I wouldn't be you for a kingdom, then !" Catherine de- 
clared, emphatically — and she seemed to speak sincerely. 
** Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what 
Heathcliff is — an unreclaimed creature, without refinement— 
without cultivation ; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone. 
I'd as soon put that little canary into the park on a winter's day 
as recommend you to bestow your heart on him ! It is deplor- 
able ignorance of his character, child, and nothing else, which 
makes that dream enter your head. Pray don't imagine that 
he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneatib a stem 
exterior ! He's not a rough diamond — a pearl-containing oyster 
of a rustic ; he's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to 
him, Let this or that enemy alone, because it would be ungen- 
erous or cruel to hanp them. I say. Let them alone, because I 
should hate them to be wronged : and he'd crush you, like a 
sparrow's egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome charge. 
I know he couldn't love a Linton ; and yet, he'd be quite capa- 
ble of marrying your fortune and expectations. Avarice is 
growing with him a besetting sin. There's my picture ; and 
I'm his friend — so much so that had he thought seriously to 
catch you, I should, perhaps, 4iave held my tongue and let yoa 
fall into this trap." 

Miss Linton regarded her sister-in-law with indignation. 

" For shame ! for shame !" she repeated, angrily. ** You are 
worse than twenty foes, you pobonous friend !" 



fVITTHERINOHEIGHTB. 01 

'' Ah ! you won't believe me then V^ said Catherine. '' Yoa 
think I speak from wicked selfishness 1" 

" I'm certain you do," retorted Isabella ; " and I shudder at 
you!" 

** Good !" cried the other. " Try for yourself, if that be your 
sphit ; I have done, and yield the argument to your saucy inso- 
lence." 

** And I must sufier for her egotism !" she sobbed, as Mrs. 
Linton left the room. " All, all is against me ; she has blighted 
my single consolation. But she uttered ^dsehoods, didn't she 1 
Mr! Heathcliff is not a fiend ; he has an honorable soul, and a 
true one, or how could he remember her ?" 

'* Banish him firom your thoughts, Miss," I said. " He's a bird 
of bad omen ; no mate for you. Mrs. Linton spoke strongly, 
and yet I can't contradict her. She is better acquainted with 
his heart than I, or any one besides ; and she never would rep* 
resent him as worse than he is. Honest people don't hide their 
deeds. How has he been living % how has he get rich 1 why is 
he staying at Wuthering Heights — ^the house of a man whom he 
abhors 1 They say Mr. Eamshaw is worse and worse since he 
came. They sit up all night together continually : and Hindloy 
has been borrcfwing money on his land ; and does nothing but 
play and drink, I heard only a week ago ; it was Joseph who 
told me— I met him at Gimmerton." 

** * Nelly,' he said, * we's hae a Crahnr's 'quest enah, at ahr 
folks. One on 'em's a'most gettin his finger cut off wi' handing 
f other firoo' sticking hisseln loike a oawlf. That's maister, yah 
knaw, ut's soa up uh going tub t'grand 'sizes. He's noan feared 
uh t' Bench uh judges, norther Paul, nur Peter, nur John, nor 
Mathew, nor noan on 'em, nut he 1 He fair like's he langs tub 
set his brazened face agean 'em ! And yon bonny lad Heath- 
cliff, yah mind, he's a rare un ! He can gim a laugh, as weePs 
onybody at a raight dlvil's jest. Does he niver say nowt of his 
fine living aroang us, when he goes tub t' Grange 1 This is t' 
way on't — up at sun-dahn ; dice, brandy, cloised shutters, und 
can'le lught till next day, at nooin — then t' fooil gangs banning 
un raving tub his cham'er, makking dacent fowks dig tbur fin- 
gers i' thur lugs for varry shaume ; un' th' knave, wah, he cam 
cahnt his brass, un' ate, un' sleep, un' off tub his neighbor's tub 
gossip wi' t' wife. I' course, be tells Dame Catherine hah hot 
father's goold runs intuh his pocket, and her fother's son gallops 
dahn t' broad road, while he flees afore tub oppen t' pikes %' 



WUTHERIKO HEIGHTS. 



Now, Miss Linton, Joseph is an old rascal, but no liar ; and, if 
his account of Heathcliff 's conduct be true, you would never 
think of desiring such a husband, would you 1" 

" You are leagued with the rest, Ellen !" she replied. " I'll 
not listen to your slanders. What malevolence you must have 
to wish to convince me that there is no happiness in the world !" 
Whether she would have got over this fancy if left to herself, 
or persevered in nursing it perpetually, I can not say ; she had 
little time to reflect. The day after there was a justice-meeting 
at the next town ; my master was obliged to attend ; and Mr. 
Heathclift^ aware of his absence, called rather earlier than 
usual. 

Catherine and Isabella were sitting in the library, on hostile 
terms, but silent. The latter alarmed at her recent indiscre- 
tion, and the disclosure she had made of her secret feelings in 
a transient fit of passion ; the former, on mature consideration, 
really offended with her companion ; and, if she laughed again 
at her pertness, inclined to make it no laughing matter to jUr, 

She did laugh as she saw Heathcliff pass the window. I was 
sweeping the hearth, and I noticed a mischievous smile on her 
lips. Isabella, absorbed in her meditations, or a book, remained 
till the door opened, and it was too late to attempt an escape, 
which she would gladly have done had it been practicable. 

"Come in, that's right!" exclaimed the mistress, gay ly, pull- 
ing a chair to the fire. " Here are two people sadly in need of 
a third to thaw the ice between them ; and you are the very 
one we should both of us choose. HeathcUff, I'm proud to 
show you, at last, somebody that dotes on you more than myself. 
I expect you to feel flattered — ^nay, it's not Nelly ; don't look at 
her ! My poor little sister-in-law is breaking her heart by mere 
contemplation of your physical and moral beauty. It lies in 
your own power to be Edgar's brother ! No, no, Isabella, you 
shan't run off*," she continued, arresting, with feigned playful- 
ness, the confounded girl who had risen indignantly. " We 
were quarreling like cats about you, Heathcliff*; and I was 
fairly beaten in protestations of devotion and admiration ; and, 
moreover, I was informed that if I would but have the manners 
to stand aside, my rival, as she will have herself to be, would 
shoot a shaft into your soul that would fix you for ever, and send 
my image into eternal oblivion !" 

" Catherine," said Isabella, calling up her dignity, and dis- 
daining to struggle from the tight grasp that held her. " I'd 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 93 

thank you to adhere to the truth, and not slander me, even in 
joke! Mr. Heathcliff, be kind enough to bid this fiiend of 
yours release me — she forgets that you and I are not intimate 
acquaintances, and what amuses her is painful to me beyond 
expression." 

As the guest answered nothing, but took his seat, and looked 
thoroughly indifferent what sentiments she cherished concerning 
him, she turned, and whispered an earnest appeal for liberty to 
her tormentor. 

" By no means !" cried Mrs. Linton in answer. " I won't be 
named a dog in the manger again. You sTiaM stay, now then ! 
Heathcliff, why don't you evince satisfaction at my pleasant 
news 1 IsabeUa swears that the love Edgar has for me, is 
nothing to that she entertains for you. . I'm sure she made some 
speech of the kind, did she not, Ellen % And she has fasted 
ever since the day before yesterday's walk, from sorrow and 
rage that I dispatched her out of your society, under the idea 
of its being unacceptable." 

" I think you belie her,*' said Heathcliff, twisting his chair to 
face them. " She wishes to be out of my society now, at any 
rate!" 

And he stared hard at the object of discourse, as one might 
do at a strange repulsive animal, a centipede from the Indies, 
for instance, which curiosity leads one to examine in spite of the 
averaion it taises. 

The poor thing couldn't bear that; she grew white and red 
in rapid succession, and, while tears beaded her lashes, bent the 
strength of her small fingers to loosen the firm clutch of Cath- 
erine, and perceiving that, as fast as she raised one finger off her 
arm, another closed down, and she could not remove the whole 
together, she began to make use of her nails, and their sharpness 
presently ornamented the detainer's with crescents of red- 

" There's a tigress !" exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting her free, 
and shaking her hand with pain. " Begone, for God's sake, 
and hide your vixen face! How foolish to reveal those talons 
to him. Can't you fancy the conclusions he'll draw 1 Look, 
Heathcliff! they are instruments that will do execution — you 
must beware of your eyes." 

" I'd wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me," 
he answered, brutally, when the door had closed after her. 
" But, what did you mean by teasing the creature in that man- 
ner, Cathy % You were not speaking the truth, were you V* 



94 ^ WUTHtRING HEIGHTS. 



" I assure you I was/' she returned. " She has been pining 
for your sake several weeks ; and raving about you this morn- 
ing, and pouring forth a deluge of abuse, because I represented 
your failings in a plain light, for the purpose of mitigating her 
adoration. But don't notice it further. 1 wished to punish her 
sauciness, that's all. I like her too well, my dear Heathcliff, to 
let you absolutely seize and devour her up." 

" And I like her too ill to attempt it," said he, " except in a 
very ghoulish fashion. You'd hear of odd things, if I lived 
alone with that mawkish, waxen face, the most ordinary would 
be painting on its white the colors of^ the rainbow, and turning 
the blue eyes black, every day or two ; they detestably resemble 
Linton's." 

" Delectably," observed Catherine. " They are dove's eyes 
—angel's !" 

" She's her brother's heir, is she not ?" he asked, after a brief 
silence. 

" I should be sorry to think so," returned his companion. 
** Half-a-dozen nephews shall erase her title, please Heaven ! 
Abstract your mind fix)m the subject, at present — you are too 
prone to covet your neighbor's goods : remember this neighbor's 
goods are mine." 

•* If they were mine, they would be none the less that," said 
Heathcliff, ** but though Isabella Linton may be silly, she is 
scarcely mad; and — ^in short we'll dismiss the matter as you 
advise." 

From their tongues, they did dismiss it ; and Catherine, prob- 
ably, fi'om her thoughts. The other, I felt certain, recalled it 
oflen in the course of the evening ; I saw him smile to himself 
— grin rather — and lapse into ominous musing whenever Mrs. 
Lint(m had occasion to be absent from the apartment. 

I determined to watch his movements. My heart invariably 
cleaved to the master's, in preference to Catherine's side ; wdth 
reason, I imagined, for he was kind, and trustful, and honora- 
ble : and she— -she could not be called the opposite, yet she 
seemed to allow herself such vnde latitude that I had little faith 
in her principles, and still less sympathy for her feelings. I 
wanted something to happen which might have the effect of 
freeing both Wuthering Heights and the Grange of Mr. Heath- 
cliff, quietly, leaving us as we had been prior to his advent. 
His visits were a continual nightmare to me ; and, I suspected, 
to my master also. His abode at the Heights was an oppi-e^- 



WITHERING HEF'GHTS. 95 



sKHi past explaining. I felt that God had forsaken the stray 
sheep there to its own wicked wanderings, and an evil beast 
prowled between it and the fold, waiting his time to spring and 
destroy. 



CHAPTER XI. 

SoMBTiBfEff, while meditating on these things in solitude, 
I have got up in a sudden terror, and put on my bonnet to go 
see how all was at the farm ; I have persuaded my conscience 
that it was a duty to warn him how people talked regarding 
his ways ; and then I have recollected his confirmed bad 
habits, and hopeless of benefiting him, have flinched firom 
re-entering the dismal house, doubting if I could bear to be 
taken at my word. 

One time I passed the old gate, going out of my way, on a 
journey to Gimmeiton. It was about the period that my 
narrative has reached — a bright, frosty afternoon ; the ground 
bare, and the road hard and dry. 

I came to a stone where the highway branches off on to the 
moor at your left hand ; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters 
' W. H. cut on its north side, on the east G., and on the south- 
west T. G. It seiTes as gttide-post to the Grange, and Heights, 
and village. 

The sun shone yellow on its gray head, reminding me of 
summer ; and I can not say why, but all at once a gush of child's 
sensations flowed into my heart. Hindley and I held it a 
favorite spot twenty years before. 

I gazed long at the weather-worn block ; and, stooping 
down, perceived a hole near the bottom still full of snail-shells 
and pebbles, which we were fond of storing there with more 
perishable things — and, as fresh as reality, it appeared that I 
beheld my early playmate seated on the withered turf; his 
dark, square head bent forward, and his little hand scooping 
out the earth with a piece of slate. 

" Poor Hindley !" I exclaimed involuntarily. 

I started — my bodily eye was cheated into a momentary 
belief that the child lifted its face and stax^ straight into 



96 W U T M RING HEIGHTS. 



mine ! It vanished in a twinkling ; but immediately I felt an 
irresistible yearning to be at the Heights. Superstition urged 
me to comply with this impulse-HSupposiug he should be dead! 
I thought— or should die soon ! — supposing it were a sign of 
death ! 

The nearer I got to the house the nrore agitated I grew : 
and on catching sight of it I trembled in every limb. The 
apparition had outstripped me ; it stood looking through the 
gate. That was my first idea on observing an elf-locked, 
brown-eyed boy setting his ruddy countenance against the bars. 
Fuither reflection suggested this must be Hareton, my Hare- 
ton, not altered greatly since I left hipn, ten months since. 

" God bless thee, darling !" I cried, forgetting instantaneously 
my foolish fears. " Hareton, it's Nelly — Nelly, thy nurse.** 

He retreated out of arm's length, and picked up a large 
flint 

" I am come to see thy father, Hareton," I added, guessing 
from the action that Nelly, if she lived in his memory at all, 
was not recognized as one with me. 

He raised his missile to hurl it ; I commenced a soothing 
speech, but could not stay his hand. The stone struck my bon* 
net, and then ensued fix)m the stammering lips of the little fel- 
low a string of curses, which, whether he comprehended them 
or not, were delivered with practiced emphasis, and distorted 
his baby features into a shocking expression of malignity. 

You may be certain this grieved more than angered me. 
Fit to cry, I took an orange from my pocket, and offered it to 
propitiate him. 

He hesitated, and then snatched it from my hold, as if he 
fancied I only intended to tempt and disappoint him. 

I showed another, keeping it out of his reach. 

" Who has taught you those fine words, my bairn," I in- 
quired. " The curate V 

" Damn the curate and the^ ! Gie me that," he replied. 

" Tell us where you got your lessons, and you shall have it,'* 
said I. " Who's your master ? " 

" Devil daddy," was his answer. 

" And what do you learn from daddy 1 " I continued. 

He jumped at the fiiiit ; I raised it higher. " What does he 
teach you ? " I asked. 

" Naught," said he, " but to keep out of his gait. Daddy 
can not bide me, because I swear at him." 



WUTHEEIN6 HB^kHTS. 97 

^Ah! and the devO teaches you to Bwear at daddy f' I 
observed. 

** Ay — ^nay/' he drawled. 

" Who then 1" 

« Heathcliflf." 
* I asked if he liked Mr. Heathclifft 

" Aye I" he answered again. 

Dedring to have his reasons fi>r liking him, I could only 
gather the sentences. ** I known't — ^he pays dad back what he 
gies to me — ^he curses daddy for cursing me— he says I mun do 
as I wilL" 

"And the curate does not teach you to read and write, 
then 1" I pursued. 

No ; I was told the curate should have his teeth dashed 

down his throat, if he stepped over the threshold — Heath- 

diff had promised that. 

I put the orange in his hand ; and bade him tell his father 
that a woman called Nelly Dean was waitine^ to speak with 
him, by the garden gate. 

He went up the walk, and entered the house; but instead 
of Hindley, Heathcliff appeared on the door stones, and I turned 
directly and ran down the road as hai*d as ever I could race, 
making no halt till I gained the guide-post, and feeling as scared 
as if I had raised a goblin. 

This is not much connected vnth Miss Isabella's affair, except 
that it urged me to resolve, further, on mounting vigilant guard 
and doing my utmost to check the spread of such bad influence 
at the Grange, even though I should wake a domestic storm by 
thwarting Mrs. Linton's pleasure. 

The next time Heathcliff came, my young lady chanced to be 
feeding some pigeons in the xrourt. She had never spoken a word 
to her sister-in-law for three days ; but she had Hkevnse dropped 
her fretful complaining, and we found it a great comfort 

Heathcliff had not the habit of bestowing a single unneces- 
sary civility on Miss Linton, I knew. Now, as soon as he be- 
held her, his first precaution was to take a sweeping survey of 
the house-fi*ont I was standing by the kitchen vdndow, but I 
drew out of sight. He then stepped across the pavement to 
her, and said something ; she seemed embarrassed, and desirous 
of getting away ; to prevent it, he laid his hand on her arm : 
she averted her face; he apparently put some question which 
•he had no mind to answer. There was another rapid glance 

E 



98 W U T l^ll I N 6 HEIGHTS. 



at the house, and Buppoeing himself unseen, the scoun(]rel had 
the impudence to embrace her. 

" Judas ! - Traitor !" I ejaculated ; " you are a hypocrite too 
are you T A deliberate deceiver." 

" Who is, Nelly 1" said Catherine's voice at my elbow — ^I had 
been over-intent on watching tt^ pair outside to mark her en- 
trance. 

" Your worthless friend !" I answered warmly, ** the sneaking 
rasccJ yonder — ah, he has caught a glimpse of us — he is coming 
in ! I wonder will he have the art to find a plausible excuse, 
for making love to Miss, when he told you he hated her 1" 

Mrs. Linton saw Isabella tear herself free, and run into the 
garden ; and a minute afier, Heathclifi* opened the door. 

I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation ; but 
Catherine angrily insisted on silence, and threatened to order 
me out of the kitchen, if I dared be bo presumptuous as to put 
in my insolent tongue. 

" To hear you, people might think you were the mistress V* 
she cried. "You want setting down in your right place! 
Heathcliff, what are you about, raising this stir ] I said you 
must let Isabella alone ! I beg you will, tmless you are tire^ 
of being received here, and wish Linton to draw the bolts 
against you !" 

" God forbid that he should try !" answered the black villain 
— ^I detested him just then. " God keep him meek and patient! 
Every day I grow madder afler sending him to heaven !" 

" Hush !" said Catherine shutting the inner do€»*. " Don't 
vex me. Why have you disregarded my request 1 Did she 
come across you on purpose 1" 

•* What is it to you V* he growled, I have a right to kiss her, 
if she chooses, and you have no ridit to object— I'm not your 
husband ; you needn't be jealous of me !" 

" I'm not jealous of you ; replied the mistress ; " I'm jealous 
for you. Clear your face, you shan't scowl at me ! If you like 
Isabella, you shsdl marry her. But, do you like her 1 Tell the 
truth, Heathcliff. There, you won't answer. I'm certain you 
don't." 

*' And would Mr. Linton approve of his sbter marrying that 
man V I inquired. 

" Mr. Linton should approve," returned my lady decisively. 

" He might spare himself the trouble," said Heathclifi^ " I 
could do as well without his approbation ; and, as to you« 



WUTHEKING HB|piHT8 99 

Catherine, I have a mind to speak a few words now, while we 
are at it — I want you to be aware that I know you have treated 
me infernally — infernally ! Do you hear 1 And, if you flatter 
yourself that I don't perceive it you are a fool — and if you think 
I can be consoled by sweet words you are an idiot — and if you 
^cy I'll suffei unrevenged, I'll convince you of the contrary in 
a very little while ! Meantime, thank you for telling me your 
sister-in-law's secret I 'swear I'll make the most of it, and 
stand you aside !" 

" What new phase of his character is this 1" exclaimed Mrs. 
Linton, in amazement "I've ti*eated you infernally — and 
you'll take revenge ! How will you take it, ungrateful brute 1 
How have I treated you infernally 1" 

" I seek no revenge on you," replied Heathcliff less vehement 
\v « That's not the plan. The tyrant grinds down his slaves 
and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them. 
You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement ; 
only allow me to amuse myself a little in die same style. And 
refrain from insult as much as you are able. Having leveled 
my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your 
own charity in giving me that for a home. If I imagined you 
really vnshed me to marry Isabella, I'd cut my throat.'^ 
, ** Oh the evil is that I am woHealous, is it t" 'cried Catherine. 
"Well, I won't repeat my oflfer of a wife. It is as bad aa 
ofi^ng Satan a lost soul. Your bliss lies, like his, in inflicting 
misery. You prove it. Edgar is restored from the ill-tempei 
he gave way to at your coming; I begin to be secure and 
ixanquil; and you, restless to know us at peace, appear re- 
solved on exciting a quarrel. Quarrel with Edgar if you 
please, Heathclifl*, and deceive his sister^ you'll hit on exactly 
the most efficient method of revenging yourself on me.*' 

The conversation ceased ; Mrs. Linton sat down by the fire, 
flushed and gloomy. The spirit which served her w.as growing 
intractable : she could neither lay nor control it. He stood on 
the hearth, with folded arms, brooding on his evil thoughts; and 
in this position I left them, to seek the master who was wonder- 
ing what kept Catherine below so long. 

" Ellen," said he, when I entered, " have you seen your mis- 
tress?" 

" Yes, she's in the kitchen, sir," I answered. " She's sadly 
put out by Mr. Heathcliflf's behavior : and, indeed, I do think 
it's time to arrange his wits on another footing. Thei'e's harm 



100 WUTfi|||RIN6 HEIGHTS. 

in being too soft, and now it's come to this — ." And I related 
the scene in the court, and, as near as I dared, the whole sub- 
sequent dispute. I fancied it could not be veiy prejudicial to 
Mrs. Linton, unless she made it so afterward, by assuming the 
defensive for her guest. 

Edgar Linton had difficulty in hearing me to the close. His 
first words revealed that he did not clear his wife of blame. 

'' This is insufferable !" he exclaimed'. " It is disgraceful that 
she should own him for a friend, and force his company on me ! 
Call me two men out of the hall, Ellen. Catherine shall linger 
no longer to argue with the low ruffian — I have humored her 
enough." 

He descended, and, bidding the servants wait in the passage, 
went, followed by me, to the kitchen. Its occupants had re- 
commenced their angry discussion ; Mrs. Linton, at least, was 
scolding vnth renewed vigor; Heathcliff had moved to the 
window, and hung his head, apparently somewhat cowed by 
her violent rating. 

He saw the master first, and made a hasty motion that she 
should be silent; which she obeyed abruptly, on discovering 
the reason of his intimation. 

" How is this V said Linton, addressing her ; " what notion 
of propriety must you have to remain here, after the language 
which has been held to you by that blackguard *{ I suppose 
because it is his ordinary talk you think nothing of it ; you are 
habituated to his baseness, and, perhaps, imagine I can get used 
to it too !" 

" Have you been listening at the door, Edgar 1" asked the 
mistress, in a tone particularly calculated to provoke her hus- 
band, implying both carelessness and contempt of his irritation. 

Heathclift*, who had raised his eyes at the former speech, 
gave a sneering laugh at the latter, on purpose, it seemed, to 
draw Mr. Linton's attention to him. 

He succeeded; but Edgar did not mean to entertain him 
with any high flights of passion. 

"I have been so far forbearing with you, sir," he said, 
quietly ; '' not that I was ignorant of your miserable, degraded 
character, but I felt you were only partly responsible for that ; 
and Catherine, wishing to keep up your acquaintance, I ac- 
quiesced — ^foolishly. Your presence is a moral poison that 
would contaminate the most virtuous; for that cause, and to 
prevent worse consequences, I shall d^y you hereaft;er admis- 



WUTHERINO HWGHTS. 101 

sion into this house, and give notice now that I require your 
instant departure. Three minutes' delay will render it in- 
voluntary and ignominious." 

HeathcliflT measured the height and breadth of the speaker 
with an eye fiilL of derision. 

" Cathy, this lamb of yours threatens like a bull !" he said. 
" It is in danger of splitting its skull against my knuckles. By 
God, Mr. Linton, I'm mortally sorry that you are not worth 
knocking downl" 

My master glanced toward the passage, and signed me to 
fetch the men — ^he had no intention of hazarding a personal 
encounter. 

I obeyed the hint ; but Mrs. Linton suspecting something, 
followed, and when I attempted to call them, she pulled me 
back, slammed the door to, and locked it. 

"Fair means!" she said, in answer to her husband's look 
of angry isurprise. " If you have not the courage tp attack him, 
make an apology, or allow yourself to be beaten. It will cor- 
rect you of feigning more valor than you possess. No, I'U 
swallow the key before you shall get it! I'm delightfully 
rewarded for my kindness to each ! After constant indulgence 
of one's weak nature, and the other's bad one, I earn, for 
thanks, two samples of blind ingratitude, stupid to absurdity ! 
Edgar, I was defending you and yours; and I wish Heath* 
clin may flog you sick, for daring to think an evil thought 
of me!" 

It did not need the medium of a flogging to produce that 
effect on the master. He tried to wrest the key from 
Catherine's grasp ; and for safety she flung it into the hottest 
part of the fire ; whereupon Mr. Edgar was taken with a 
nervous trembling, and his countenance grew deadly pale. 
For his life he could not avert that access of emotion ; mingled 
anguish and humiliation overcame him completely. He leaned 
on the back of a chair, and covered his face. 

"Oh! Heavens! In old days this would vrin you knight- 
hood!" exclaimed Mrs. Linton. "We are vanquished! Heath- 
cliff would as soon lift a finger at you as the king would march 
his army against a colony of mice. Cheer up, you shan't be 
hurt ! Your type is not a lamb, it's a sucking leveret." 

"I wish you joy of the milk-blooded coward, Cathy!" said 
her friend. " I compliment you on your taste : and that is the 
slavering, shivering thing you preferred to me ! I would not 



102 WUTHSRINQ HEIGHT 8. 



Strike him with my fist, but I'd kick him with my foot, and ex- 
perience considerable satis&ction. Is he weeping, or is he going 
to faint for fear V* 

The fellow approached and gave the chair on which Linton 
rested a push. He'd better have kept his distance: my master 
quickly sprang erect, and struck him full on the throat a blow that 
would have leveled a slighter man. 

It took his breath for a minute; and, while he choked, Mr. 
Linton walked out by the back door into the yard, and from 
thence to the front entrance. 

" There ! you've done with coming here," cried Catherine. 
"Get away, now— she'll return with a brace of pistols, and hatf- 
a-dozen assistants. If he did overhear us, of course, he'd never 
forgive you. You've played me an ill turn, Heathcliff ! But 
go— make haste! I'd rather see Edgar at bay than you." 

"Do you suppose I'm going wiUi that blow burning in my 
gullet V he thundered. " By Hell, no ! I'll crush his ribs in 
like a rotten hazle-nut before I cross the threshold ! If I don't 
floor him now, I shall murder him sometime ; so, as you value 
his existence, let me get at him i" 

" He is not coming,'!. I interposed, framing a bit of a lie. 
" There's the coachman, and the two gardeners ; you'll surely 
not wait to be thrust into the road by them ! Each has a blud- 
geon, and master will, very likely, be watching from the parlor 
windows to see that they frilfil his ordere." 

The gardeners and coachman were there, but Linton was with 
them. They had already entered the court. Heathcliff, on 
second thoughts, resolved to avoid a struggle against three 
underlings; he seized the poker, smashed the lock frotn the 
inner door, and made his escape as they tramped in. 

Mrs. Linton, who was very much excited, bid me accompany 
her up stairs. She did not know my share in contributing to the 
disturbance, and I was anxious to keep her in ignorance. 

"I'm nearly distracted, Nelly !" she exclaimed, throwing her- 
self on the sofa. "A thousand smiths' hammers are beating in 
my head ! Tell Isabella to shun me — this uproar is owing to 
her; and should she or any one else aggravate my anger at 

E resent, I shall get wild. And, Nelly, say to Edgar, if you see 
im again to-night, that I'm in danger of being seriously ill — ^I 
wish it may prove true. He has startled and distressed me 
shockingly ! I want to frighten him. Besides, he might come 
and begin a string of abuse or complainings ; I'm certain I 



WUTBBRING HEIGHTS. 103 

should recriminatef and God knows where we should end! 
Will you do BO, my good Nelly ? You are aware that I am no 
way blamable in this matter. What possessed him to turn lis- 
tener! Heatbclififs talk was outrageous after you left us ; but 
«. could soon have diverted him from Isabella, and the rest meant 
nothing. Now, all is dashed wrong by die fool's craving to hear 
evil of self, that haunts some people like a demon ! Hs^ Edgar 
never grathered our conversation^ he would never have been the 
worse for it. Really, when he opened on me in that unreason- 
able tone of displeasure, after I had scolded Heathclift* till I was 
noarse for Aim, I did not care, hardly, what they did to each 
other^ especidly as I felt that, however the scene closed, we 
should all be driven asunder, for nobody knows how longi 
Well, if I can not keep Heathcliff for my friend, if Edgar will 
be mean and jealous, I'll try to break their hearts by breaking 
my own, Tlmt will be a prompt way of finishing all, when I 
am pushed to extremity ! But it's a deed to be reserved lor a 
forlorn hope — I'd not take Linton by surprise with it. To this 
point he has been discreet in dreading to provoke me ; you must 
represent the perU of quitting that policy ; and remind him of 
my passionate temper, verging, when kindled, on fienzy. I vnah 
you could dismiss that apathy out of your countenance, and lodk 
rather more anxious about me !" 

The stolidity with which I received these instructions was, no 
doubt, rather exasperating; for they were delivered in peifect 
sincerity; but I believed a person who could plan the turning of 
her fits of passion to account beforehand, might, by exerting her 
wiU, manage to control herself tolerably, even while under their 
iufiuence ; and I did not wish to " firighten" her husband, as she 
said, and multiply his annoyances for the purpose of serving her 
selfishness. 

Therefore I said nothing when I met the master coming to- 
ward the parlor ; but I took the liberty of turning back to hsten 
whether they would resume their quarrel together. 

He began to speak first. 

"Remain where you are, Catherine," he said, without any 
anger in his voice, but with much sorrowful despondency. "I 
shaJl not stay. I am neither come to wrangle, nor be reconciled: 
but I wish just to learn whether, after this evening's events, you 
intend to continue your intimacy with^ — " 

"Oh, for mercy's sake," interrupted the mistress, stamping 
her foot, "for mercy's sake, let us hear no more of it now! 



104 WUTHERINO HBI6HT8. 

Your cold blood can not be worked into a ferer — ^your veins 
are full of ice- water — ^but mine are boiling*; and tb« sight oi such 
dullness makes tbem dance." 

" To get rid of me— answer my question/' persevered Mr. 
Linton. "You must answer it; and that violence does not 
alarm me. I have found that you can be as stoical as any one 
when you please. Will you give up Heathcliff hereafter, or 
will you give up me ? It ia impossible for you to be my friend 
and his at the same time, and I absolutely require to know which 
you choose." 

'' I require to be let alone 1" exclaimed Catherine, furiously. 
" I demand it 1 Don't you see I can scarcely stand 'i Edgar, 
you — ^you leave me !" 

She rung the bell till it broke with a twang : I entered leisure- 
ly. It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, 
wicked rages ! There she lay, dashing her head aeainst the 
arm of the sofa and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy 
she would crush them to splinters ! 

Mr. Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and 
fear. He told me to fetch some water. She had no breath for 
speaking. 

I brought a glassful, and, as she would hot drink, I sprinkled 
it on her ^e. In a few seconds she stretched herself out stiff, 
and turned up her eyes, while her cheeks, at once blanched and 
livid, assumed the aspect of death. 

Linton looked temfied. 

" There is nothing in the world the matter," I whispered. I 
did not want him to yield, though I could not help being afraid 
in my heart. 

'' She has blood on her lips !" he said, shuddering. 

" Never mind !" I answered, tartly ; and I told him how she 
had resolved, previous to his commg, on exhibiting a fit of 
frenzy. 

I incautiously gave the account aloud, and she heard me, for 
she started up — her hair flying over her shoulders, her eyes 
flashing, the muscles of her neck and arms standing out preter- 
naturally. I made up my mind for broken bones at least ; but 
she only glared about her for an instant, and then rushed from 
the room. 

The master directed me to follow; I did, to her chambei 
door ; she hindered me from going farther by securing it against 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 105 

As she never offered to descend to breakfast next morning, I 
went to ask whether she would have some carried up. 

" No !" she replied, peremptorily. 

The same question was repeated at dinner and tea, and again 
on the morrow after, and received the same answer. 

Mr. Linton, on his part, spent his time in the library, and did 
not inquire concerning his wife's occupations. Isabella and he 
had had an hour's interview, during which he tried to elicit from 
her some sentiment of proper horror for Heathcli£rs advances ; 
but he could make nothmg of her evasive replies, and was obliged 
to close the examination unsatisfkctorily, adding, however, a 
solenm warnings that if she were so insane as to encourage that 
worthless suitor, it would dissolve all bonds of relationship be- 
tween herself and him. 



CHAPTER XII. 

While Miss Linton moped about the park and garden, always 
silent, and almost always m tears, and ner brother shut himself 
up among books that he never opened, wearying, I guessed, with 
a continual vague expectation that Catherine, repenting her con- 
duct, would come of her own accord to ask pardon and seek a 
reconciliation — and ihe fasted pertinaciously, under the idea, 
probably, that at every meal Edgar was ready to choke for her 
absence, and pride alone held him from running to cast himself 
at her feet — ^J went about my household duties, convinced that 
the Grrange had but one sensible soul in its walls, and that lodged 
in my body. 

I wasted no condolences on Miss, nor any expostulations on 
my mistress, nor did I pay attention to the sighs of my master, 
who yearned to hear his lady's name, since he might not hear 
her voice. 

I determined they should come about as they pleased for me ; 
and though it was a tiresomely slow process, I began to rejoice 
at length in a faint dawn of its progress, as I thought at first. 

Mrs. Linton on the third day unbarred her door, and havxng 
finished the water in her pitcher and decanter, desired a re- 
newed supply and a basin of gruel, for she believed she was 
dying. That I set down as a speech meant for Edgar's oars. I 



106 WVTHERING HEIGHTS. 

believed no such thing ; so I kept it to myself, and brought her 
some tea and dry toast. 

She ate and drank eagerly ; and sank back on her pillow, 
agam clenching her hands and groaning. 

" Oh, I will die," she exclaimed, "since no one cares any thing 
about me. I wish I had not taken that." 

Then a good while after I heard her murmur, 

" No, 1*11 not die — -he'd be glad — ^he does not love me at all 
— ^he would never miss me !" 

"Did you ,want any thing, ma'am 1" I inquired, still pre- 
serving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly counte- 
nance, and strange, exaggerated manner. 

" What is that apathetic being doing ]" she demanded, push- 
ing the thick entangled locks from her wasted face. " Has he 
fallen into a lethargy, or is he dead V* 

" Neither," replied I ; " if you mean Mr. Linton. He's toler- 
ably well, I think, though his studies occupy him rather more 
than they ought ; he is continually among his books, since he 
has no other society." 

I should not have spoken so, if I had known her true con- 
dition, but I could not get rid of the notion that she acted a part 
of her disorder. 

" Among his books !" she cried, confounded. " And I dying ! 
I on the brink of the grave ! My God ! does he know how 
I'm altered ]" continued she, staring at her reflection in a mir- 
ror, hanging against the opposite wall. "Is that Catherine 
Linton *{ He imagines me in a pet — ^in play, perhaps. Can 
not you inform him that it is frightful earnest *? Nelly, if it be 
not too late, as soon as I learn how he feels, I'll choose between 
these two : either to starve, at once — ^that would be no punish- 
ment unless he had a heart — or to recover and leave the coun- 
try. Are you speaking the truth about him now 1 Take care. 
Is he actually so utterly indifferent for my life 1" 

"Why, ma'am," I answered, "the master has no idea of 
your being deranged ; and, of course, he does not fear that you 
will let yourself die of hunger." 

" You think not ] Can not you tell him I will V* she return- 
ed; "persuade him — speak of your own mind — say you are 
certain I will I" 

" No, you forget, Mre. Linton," I suggested, " that you have 
eaten some food with a relish (his eVening, and to-morrow you 
will perceive its good efiects." 



WDTHERINO HEIGHT B. 107 

** If I were only sure it would kill him," she interrupted, 
" I'd kill myself directly! These three awful nights, I've never 
closed my lids — and oh, I've been tormented 1 I've been haunt- 
ed, Nelly! But I begin to fancy you don't like me. How 
strange! I thought, though every body hated and despised 
each other, they could not avoid lovingme— and they have all 
turned to enemies in a few hours. They have, I'm positive * 
the people here. How dreary to meet death, surrounded by 
their cold &ces ! Isabella, terrified and repelled, afraid to en- 
ter the room, it would be so dreadful to watch Catherine go. 
And Edgar standing solemnly by to see it ov^*; then o£ferinff 
prayers of thanks to God for restoring peace to his house, and 
going back to his books / What, in the name of all that feels, 
has he to do with books, when I am dying 1" 

She could not bear the notion which I had put into her head 
of Mr. Linton's phik)8ophical resignation. Tossing about, she 
increased her feverish bewilderment to madness, and tore the 
pillow with her teeth ; then, raising herself up all burning, de- 
iiired that I would open the window. We were in the middle 
of winter, the wind olew strong from the northeast, and I ob- 
jected. 

Both the expressions flitting over her face, and the changes 
o£ her moods, began to alarm me terribly ; and brought to my 
recollection her former illness, and the d!octor's injunction that 
she should not be crossed. 

A minute previously she was violent ; now, supported on one 
arm, and not noticing my refusal to obey her, she seemed to find 
childish diveiBion in pulling the feathers from the rents she had 
just made, and ranging them on the sheet according to their 
different species : her mind had strayed to other associations. 

" That's a turkey's," she murmured to herself; " and this is 
a wild-duck's; and this is a pigeon's. Ah, they put pigeons' 
feathers in the pillows — no wonder I couldn't die ! Let me 
take care to throw it on the floor when I lie down. And here 
is a modr-cock's ; and this — I should know it among a thousand 
— it's a lapwing's. Bonny bird ! wheeling over our heads in 
the middle of the moor. It wanted to get to its nest, for the 
clouds touched the swells, and it felt rain coming. This feather 
was picked up from the heath, the bird was not shot — ^we saw 
its nest in the winter, full of little skeletons. Heathcliff set a 
trap over it„ and the old ones dare not come. I made him 
promise he'd never shoot a lapwing a^r that, and he didn't 



108 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

Yes, here are more 1 Did he shoot my lapwings, Nelly ? Are 
they red, any of them 1 Let me look." 

" Give over with that baby- work !" I interrupted, dragging 
the pillow away, and turning the holes toward the mattress, for 
she was removing its contents by handfuls. " Lie down and 
shut your eyes, you're wandering. There's a mess ! The down ^ 
is flying about like snow !" 

I went here and there collecting it. 

" I see in you, Nelly," she continued, dreamily, " an aged 
woman — ^you have gray hair and bent shoulders. ' This bed is 
the fairy cave under Penistone Crag, and you are gathering elf- 
bolts to hurt our heifers ; pretending, while I ap3 near, that they 
are only locks of wool. That's what you'll come to fifty years 
hence ; I know you are not so now. I'm not wandering, you're 
mistaken, or else I should believe you really were that withered 
hag, and I should think I was under Penistone Crag ; and I'm 
conscious it's night, and there are two candles on die table, 
making the black press shine like jet." 

" The black press \ where is that f I asked. ** You are talk- 
ing iff your sleep !" 

" It's against the wall, as it always is," she replied. " It 
Aoe9 appear odd — ^I see a face in it !" 

" There is no press in the room, and never was," said I, re- 
suming my seat, and looping up the curtain that I might watch 
her. 

'' Don't you see that face ?" she inquired, gazing earnestly at« 
the mirror. 

And, say what I could, I was incapable of making her com- 
prehend it to be her own; so I rose and covered it with a 
shawl. 

" It's behind there still !" she pursued, anxiously. " And it 
stirred. Who is it 1 I hope it will not come out when you are 
gone i Oh, Nelly, the room is haunted I I'm afraid of being 
alone !" 

I took her hand in mine, and bid her be composed, for a suc- 
cession of shudders convulsed her frame, and she toould keep 
straining her gaze toward the glass. 

" There's nobody here," I insisted, " It was yourself, Mrs, 
Linton ; you kneVv it a while since." 

"Myself!" she gasped, "and the clock is striking twelve I 
It's true, then ; that's dreadful !" 

Her fingers clutched the clothes, and gathered them over her 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 109 

eyes. I attempted to steal to the door with an intention of 
calling her husband, but I was summoned back by a piercing 
shriek. The shawl had dropped from the frame. 

" Why, what is the matter ]" cried I. " Who is coward now t 
Wake up ! That is the glass — the mirror, Mrs. Linton ; and 
you see yourself in it, and there am I, too, by your side." 

Ttembling and bewildered, she held me fast, but the horror 
gradually passed from her countenance ; its paleness gave place 
to a glow of shame. 

" Oh, dear ! I thought I was at home," she sighed. " I thought 
I was lying in my chamber at Wuthering Heights. Because Tm 
weak, my brain got confused, and I screamed unconsciously. 
Don't say any thing, but stay widi me. I dread sleeping ; my 
dreams appaU me." 

'' A sound sleep would do' you good, ma'am," I answered ; 
" and I hope this suffering will prevent your trying starving 
again." 

" Oh, if I were but in my own bed in the old house !" she 
went on bitterly, wringing her hands. ** And that wind sound- 
ing in the firs by the lattice. Do let me feel it — it comes 
straight down the moor— do let me have one breath !" 

To pacify her, I held the casement ajar a few seconds. A 
cold blast rushed through ; I closed it, and returned to my post. 

She lay still now, her face bathed in tears. Exhaustion of 
body had entirely subdued her spirit ; our fiery Catherine was 
no better than a wailing child ! 

" How long is it since I shut myself in here 1" she asked, 
suddenly reviving. 

" It was Monday evening," I replied, " and this is Thursday 
night, or rather Friday morning, at present." 

" What ! of the same week 1" she exclaimed. " Only that 
brief time V* 

" Long enough to live on nothing but cold water and ill-tem- 
per," obsisrved I. 

. " Well, it seems a weaiy number of hours," she muttered, 
doubtfully ; " it must be more — I remember being in the parlor 
after they had quarreled ; and Edgar being cruelly provoking, 
and me running into this room desperate. As soon as ever I 
had barred the door, utter blackness overwhelmed me, and I 
fell on the floor. I couldn't explain to Edgar how certain I felt 
of having a fit, or going raging mad, if he persisted in teasing 
me ! I had no command of tongue or brain, and he did not 



110 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 



guess my agony, perhaps ; it barely left me sense to try to 
escape from him and his voice. Before I recovei^ sufficiently 
to see and hear, it began to be dawn ; and, Nelly, I'll tell you 
what I thought, and what has kept recurring and recurring till 
I feared for my reason : I thought, as I lay there with my 
head against that table leg, and my eyes dimly discerning the 
gray square of the window, that I was inclosed in the oak- 
paneled bed at home ; and my heart ached with some great 
grief which, just waking, I could not recollect. I pondered 
and worried myself to discover what it could be ; and, most 
strangely, the whole last seven years of my life grew a blank ! 
I did not recall that they had been at all. I was a child ; my 
father was just buried, and my misery arose from the separation 
that Hindley had ordered between me and Heathcliff. I was 
laid alone, for the first time, and rousing from a dismal doze 
after a night of weeping, I lifted my harS to push the panels 
aside ; it struck the table-top ! I swept it along the carpet, and 
then memory burst in — my late anguish was swallowed in a 
paroxysm of despair. I can not say why I felt so wildly wretch- 
ed ; it must have been temporary derangement, for there is 
scarcely cause. But, supposing, at twelve years old, I had been 
wrenched from the Heights, and every early association, and 
my all in all, as Heathcliff was at that time, and been convert- 
ed at a stroke into Mrs. Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, 
and the wife of a stranger, an exile and outcast thencefoith 
from what had been my world — you may fancy a glimpse of 
the abyss where I groveled ! Shake your head as you will, 
Nelly, you have helped to imsettle me ! You should have 
spoken to Edgar, indeed you should, and compelled him to 
leave me quiet. Oh, I'm burning ! I wish I were out of doors. 
I wish I were a girl again, half savage, and hardy, and free, and 
laughing at injuries, not maddening under them ! Why am I 
so changed % why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a 
few words ] I'm sure I should be myself were I once among 
the headier on those hills. Open the window again wide, fasten 
it open ! Quick ! why don't you move ^" 

"Because I won't give you your death of cold," I an- 
swered. 

** You won't give me a chance of life, you mean," she said 
sullenly. " However, I'm not helpless yet, I'll open it myself" 

And sliding from the bed before I could hinder her, she 
crossed the room, walking very uncertainly, threw it back, and 



WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. Ill 



boDt out, cardess of the frosty air, that cut about her shouldeiB 
as keen as a knife. 

I entreated, and finally attempted to force her to retire. But 
I soon found her delirious strength much surpassed mine (she 
vjos delirious I became convinced by her subsequent actions 
and ravings). 

There was no moon, and every thing beneath lay in misty 
darkness ; not a light gleamed from any house, ^ or near; all 
had been extinguished long ago; and those at Wuthering Heights 
were never visible — still she asserted she caught their shining. 

" Look !" she cried eagerly, " that's my room, with the 
candle in it, and the trees swaying before it — and the other 
candle is in Joseph's garret — Joaeph sits up late, doesn't he % 
He's waiting till I come home that he may lock. the gate : well, 
he'll wait a while yet. It's a rough journey, and a sad heart 
to travel it ; and we nrast pass by Gimmerton Kirk, to go that 
journey ! We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared 
each other to stand among the graves, and ask them to come. 
But Heathclifi) if I dare you now, will you venture ? If you 
do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there by myself; they may bury 
me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me ; but 
I won't rest till you are with me — I never will !" 

She paused, and resumed with a strange smile, '' He's con- 
sidering — ^he'd rather I'd come to him ! Find a way, then ! 
not through that kirkyard. You are slow! Be content, you 
always followed me !" 

Perceiving it vain to argue against her insanity, I was plan- 
ning how I could reach something to wrap about her, without 
quitting my hold of hersetf, for I could not trust her alone by 
the gaping lattice ; when to my consternation, I heard the 
rattle of the door-handle, and Mr. Linton entered. He had 
only then come from, the library ; and, in passing through the 
lobby, had noticed our talking, and been attracted by curiosity 
or fear to examine what it signified, at that late hour. 

"Oh, sir!" I cried, checking the exclamation risen to his 
lips at the sight which met him, and the bleak atmosphere of 
the chamber, " my poor mistress is ill, and she quite masters 
me ; I can not manage her at all ; pra^, come and persuade 
her to go to bed. Forget your anger, for she's hard to guide 
any way but her own." 

" Catherine ill?" he said, hastening to us. " Shut the win- 
dow, Ellen! Catherine! why — " 



112 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 

He was silent ; the haggardness of Mrs. Linton's appearance 
smote hfm speechless, and he could only glance from her to 
me in horrified astonishment. 

" She's been fretting here," I contmued, " and eating scarcely 
any thing, and never complaining ; she would admit none of 
us tin this evening, and so we couldn't inform you of her state, 
as we were not aware of it ourselves — ^but it is nothing." 

I felt I uttered my explanations awkwardly; the master 
frowned. " It is nothing, is it, Ellen Dean V he said sternly. 
" Ypu shall account more clearly for keeping nje ignorant of 
this !" And he took his wife in his arms, and looked at her 
with anguish. 

At firet she gave him no glance of recognition — he was 
invisible to her abstracted gaze. The delirium was not fixed, 
however; having weaned her eyes from contemplating the 
outer darkness, by degrees she centered her attention on him, 
and discovered who it was that held her. 

" Ah ! you are come, are you, Edgar Linton V* she said, with 
angry animation. ** You are one of those things that are ever 
found when least wanted, and when you are wanted, never ! I 
suppose we shall have plenty of lamentations, now — I see we 
shall — ^but they can't keep me from my narrow home out yon- 
der — my resting place where I'm bound before spring is over ! 
There it is, not among the Lintons, mind, under the chapel-roof; 
but in the open air with a headstone, and you may please your- 
self, whether you go to them or come to me !" 

" Catherine, what have you done V* commenced the master. 
" Am I nothing to you, any more ? Do you love that wretch, 
Heath—" 

" Hush !" cried Mrs. Linton. " Hush, this moment ! You 
ihention that name, and I end the matter instantly by a spring 
from the window ! What you touch at present, you may have ; 
but my soul will be on that hill-top before you lay hands on me 
again. I don't want you, Edgar ; I'm past wanting you. Re- 
turn to your books ; I'm glad you possess a consolation, for all 
you had in me is gone." 

**Her mind wanders, sir," I interposed. "She has been 
talking nonsense the whole evening; but let her have quiet 
and proper attendance, and she'll rally. Hereafter, we must 
be cautious how we vex her." 

" I desire no further advice from you," answered Mr. Linton. 
** You knew your mistress's nature, and you encouraged me U 



WUTHEEINO HEIGHTS. 113 

harass her. And not to give me one hint of how she has been 
these three days 1 It was heartless ! months of sickness could 
not cause such a change !" 

I began to defend myself, thinking it too bad to be blamed 
for another's wicked waywardness I 

'' I knew Mrs. Linton's nature to be headstrong and domineer- 
ing/' cried I ; ** but I didn't know that you wished to foster her 
fierce temper 1 I did not know that, to humor her, I should wink 
at Mr. HeathcliE I performed the duty of a ^thful servant in 
telling you, and L have got a faithful servant's wages 1 Well, 
it will teach me to be careful next time. Next time you may 
gather intelligence for yourself f 

" The next time you bring a tale to me, you shaU quit my 
service, Ellen Dean," he replied. 

''You'd rather hear nothing about it, I suppose, then, 
Mr. Linton?" said L ''Heathclifif has your permission to 
come a courting to Miss, and to drop in at every opportunity 
your absence oners, on purpose to poison the mistress against 
your 

Confused as Catherine viras, her wits were alert at applying 
our conversation. 

" Ah ! Nelly has played traitor," she exclaimed, passionately, 
** Nelly is my hidden enemy — you witch ! So you do seek eft- 
bolts to hurts us ! Let me go, an J I'll make her rue ! I'll make 
her howl a recantation !" 

A maniac's fury kiodled under her brows; she struggled 
desperately to disengage herself from Lioton's arms. I felt no 
inclination to tarry the event ; and resolving to seek medical 
aid on my own responsibility, I quitted the chamber. 

In passing the garden to reach the road, at a place where a 
bridle hook is driven into the wall, I saw something white 
moved irregularly, evidently by another agent than the vnnd. 
Notwithstanding my hurry, I staid to examine it, lest ever after 
I should have the conviction impressed on my imagination that 
it was a creature of the other world. 

My surprise and perplexity were great to discover, by touch 
more than vision, Miss Isabella's springer, Fanny, suspended 
to a handkerchief^ and nearly at its last gasp. 

I quickly released the animal, and lifted it into the garden. 
I had seen it follow its mistress up-stairs, when she went to 
bed, and wondered much how it could have got out there, and 
jvvliat mischiev>us person had treated it so. 



114 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

While untying the knot round the hook, it seemed to me 
that I repeatedly caug^ the beat of hones' feet galloping at 
some distance ; but there were such a number of things to oc- 
cupy ray reflections that I hardly gave the circumstance a 
tliought, though it was a strange sound, in that place, at two 
o'clock in the morning. 

Mr. Kenneth was £>rtunately just issuing from his house to 
see a patient in the village as I came up the street; atid my 
account of Catherine Linton's malady induced him to accom- 
pany me back immediately. 

He was a plain, rough man; and he made no scruple to 
speak his doubts of her surviving this second attack ; unless she 
were more submissive to his directions than she had shown her- 
self before. 

*^ Nelly Dean," said he, " I can't help fancying there's an ex- 
tra cause for this. What has there been to do at the Grange I 
We've odd reports up here. A stout, hearty lass like Catherine 
does not fall ill for a trifle ; and that sort of people should not 
either. It's hard work bringing them through fevers, and such 
things. How did it begin V 

" The master will inform you," I answered ; " but you are 
acquainted with the Eamshaws' violent dispositions, and Mrs. 
Linton caps them all. I may say this : it commenced in a ' 
quarrel. She was struck during a tempest of passion with a 
kind of fit. That's her account, at least ; for she flew off in the 
height of it, and locked herself up. Afterward, she refused to 
eat, and now she alternately raves, and remains in a half dream, 
knowing those about her, but having her mind filled with all 
sorts of strange ideas and illusions." 

" Mr, Linton will be sorry ?" observed Kenneth, interroga- 
tively. 

" Sorry 1 he'll break his heart should any thing happen !" I 
replied. " Don't alarm him more than necessary." 

" Well, I told him to beware," said my companion, " and he 
must bide the consequences of neglecting my warning ! Hash't 
he been thick with Mr. Heathcliff lately ]" 

"Heatbcliff frequently visits at the G-range," replied I, 
" though more on the strength of the mistress having known 
nim when a boy, than- because the master likes his company. 
At present, he's discharged fi-om the trouble of calling ; owing 
to some presumptuous aspirations after Miss Linton which he 
manifested. I hardly think he'll be taken in again." 



WUTBERING HEIGHTS. 115 

'' And does Miss Linton turn a cold slionlder on Mm V was 
the doctor's next question. 

" I'm not in her confidence," returned I, reluctant to con- 
tinue the subject. 

" No, she's a sly one," he remarked, shaking his head. " She 
keeps her own counsel ! But she's a real little fool. I have it 
fix>m good authority, that, last night, and a pretty night it was ! 
she and Heathcliff were walking in the plantation at the back 
of your house above two hours ; and he pressed her not to go 
in again, but just mount his horse and away with him ! My 
infonnant said she could only put. him off by pledging her word 
of honor to }ye prepared on their first meeting after that ; when 
it was to be, he did'nt hear, but you urge Mr. Linton to look 
sharp!" 

This news filled me with firesh fears ; I outstripped Kenneth, 
and ran most of the way back. The little dog was yelping in 
the garden yet. I spared a minute to open the gate for it, but 
instead of going to the house door, it coursed up and down, 
snuffing the grass, and would have escaped to the road, had I 
hot seized and conveyed it in with me. 

On ascending to Isabella's room, my suspicions were con- 
firmed ; it was empty. Had I been a few hours sooner, Mrs. 
Linton's illness might have arrested her rash step. But what 
could be done now 1 There was a bare possibility of over- 
taking them if pursued instantly. I could not pursue them, 
however; and I dare not rouse the family, and fill the place 
with confusion ; still less unfold the business to my master, ab- 
sorbed as he was in his present calamity, and having no heart 
to spare for a second gnef ! 

I saw nothing for it,,bu^t6 hold my tongue, and suffer mat- 
ters to take their course ; and l^enneth being arrived, I went 
with a badly composed countenance to announce him. 

Catherine lay in a troubled sleep; her husband had suc- 
ceeded in soothing the access of frenzy ; he now hung over 
her pillow, watching every shade, and every change of her 
painfiilly expressive features. 

The doctor, on examining the case for himself, spoke hope- 
fully to him of its having a favorable termination, if we could 
only preserve around her perfect and constant tranquillity. To 
me, he signified the threatening danger was, not so much death 
ms permanent alienation of intellect. 

I did not close my eyes that night, nor did Mr. Linton ; hh 



116 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

deed, we never went to bed ; and the servants were all up long 
before the usual hour, moving through the house with stealthy 
tread, and exchanging whispers as they encountered each other 
in their vocations. Every one was active but Miss Isabella; 
and they began to remark how soimd she slept. Her brother 
too asked if she had risen, and seemed impatient £>r her 
presence, and hurt that she showed so little anxiety for her 
sister-in-law. 

I trembled lest he should send me to call her; but I was 
spared the pain of being the first proclaimant of her flight. One 
of the maids, a thoughtless girl, who had been on an early 
errand to Gimmerton, came panting up-stairs, open-mouthed, 
and dashed into the chamber, crying, 

"Oh, dear, dear! What mun we have next? Master, 
master, our young lady — " 

" Hold your noise !" cried I hastily, enraged at her clamorous 
manner. 

" Speak lower, Mary. What is the matter V said Mr. Linton. 
" What ails your young lady 1" 

" She's gone, she's gone ! Yon' Heathcliff 's run off wi' her !" 
gasped the girl. 

" That is not true 1" exclaimed Linton, rising in agitation 
** It can not be. How has the idea entered your head T Ellen 
Dean, go and seek her — ^it is incredible — ^it can not be." 

As he spoke, he took the servant to the door, and then re- 
peated his demand to know her reasons for such an assertion. 

" Why, I met on the road a lad that fetches milk here," she 
stammered, " and he asked whether we wern't in trouble at the 
Grange. I thought he meant for Missis's sickness, so I answered, 
yes. Then says he, *They's somebody jone after 'em, I guess.' 
I stared. He saw I knew naught about it, and he told how a 
gentleman and lady had stopped to have a horse's shoe fastened 
at a blacksmith's shop, two miles out of Gimmerton, not very 
long after midnight ! and how the blacksmith's lass had got up 
to spy who they were ; she knew them both directly. And she 
noticed the man. Heathcliff it was, she felt certain, nob'dy 
could mistake him ; besides he put a sovereign in her father's 
hand for payment. The lady had a cloak about her face ; but 
having desired a sup of water, while she drank it fell back, and 
she saw her very plain. Heathcliff held both bridles as they 
rode on, and they set their faces from the village, and went as 
feiBt as the rough roads would let them. The lass said nothing 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 117 

to her father, but she told it all over Gimmerton this morn- 
ing." 

I ran and peeped, for form's sake, into Isabella's room : con 
finning, when I returned, the servant's statement. Mr. Linton 
had resumed his seat by the bed ; on my re-entrance, he raised 
his eyes, read the meaning of my blank aspect, and dropped 
them without giving an order, or uttering a vrord. 

" Are we to try any measures for overtaking and bringing 
ner back," I inquired. " How should we do V* 

" She went of her ovm accord," answered the master; "she 
had a right to go if she pleased. Trouble me lio more about 
her. Hereafter she is only my sister in name ; not because I 
disown her, but because she has disovmed me." 

And that was all he said on the subject ; he did not make a 
single inquiry further, or mention her in any way, except direct- 
ing me to send what prc^eity she had in the house to ner fresh 
home, wherever it was, when I knew it. 



CHAPTER Xm. 

For two months the fugitives remained absent ; in those two 
months Mrs. Linton encountered and conquered the worst shock 
of what was denominated a brain fever. No mother could have 
nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her. 
Day and night he was veatching, and patiently enduring all the 
annoyances that irritable nerves and a shaken reason could in- 
flict : and, though Kenneth remarked that what he saved from 
the grave would only recompense his care by forming the source 
of constant future anxiety ; in fact, that his health and strength 
were being sacrificed to preserve a mere ruin of humanity, he 
knew no limits in gratitude and joy when Catherine's life was 
declared out of danger ; and hour after hour he would sit be- 
side her, tracing the gradual return to bodily health, and flatter- 
ing his too sanguine hopes with the illusion that her mind would 
settle back to its light balance also, and she would soon be en- 
tirely her former self. 

The first time she left her chamber, was at the commencement 
of the following March. Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in 



118 WUTHBBINO H BIGHTS. 

the morning, a handful of golden crocuses ; her eye, long stranger 
to any gleam of pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone de* 
lighted as she gathered them eagerly together. 

"These are the earliest flowers at the Heights!" she ex- 
claimed. ** They remind me of soft thaw winds, and warm sun- 
shine, and nearly melted snow. Edgar, is there not a south 
wind, and is not the snow almost gone V 

** The snow is quite gone ; down here, darling I" replied her 
husband, " and I only see two white spots on the whole range 
of moors. The sky is blue, and the larks are singing, and the 
becks and brooks are all brim full. Oatherme, last spring at this 
time, I was longing to have you under this roof — ^now, I wish 
you were a mile or two up those hills, the air blows so sweetly, 
I feel that it would cure you." 

"I shall never be there, but once more!" said the invalid; 
" and then you'll leave me, and I shall remain, for ever. Next 
spring you'll long again to have me under this roofj and you'll 
•look back, and tiiink you were happy to-day." 

Linton lavished on her the kindest caresses, and tried to cheer 
her by the fondest words ; but, vaguely regarding the flowers, 
she let the tears collect on her lashes, and stream down her 
cheeks unheeded. 

We knew she was really better, and therefore decided that 
long confinement to a single place produced much of this de- 
spondency, and it might be partially removed by a change of 
scene. 

The master told me to light a fire in the many weeks' desert- 
ed parlor, and to set an easy chair in the sunshine by the win- 
dow ; and then he brought her down, and she sat a long while, 
enjoying the genial heat, and, as we expected, revived by the 
objects round her, which, though familiar, were free fi*om Che 
dreary associations investing her hated sick-charnber. By even- 
ing she seemed greatly exhausted; yet no arguments could 
persuade her to return to that apartment, and I had to arrange 
the parlor sofa for her bed, tiU another room could be pre- 
pared. 

To obviate the fatigue of mounting and descending the stairs, 
we fitted up this, where you lie at present, on the same floor 
with the parlor : and she was soon strong enough to move fi-om 
one to the other, leaning on Edgar's ann. 

Ah, I thought myself she might recover, so waited on as she 
was. And there was double cause to desire it, for on her exist- 



lyUTHERING HEIGHTS. 119 



ence depended that of another ; we cherished the hope that in 
a little while Mr. Linton's heart would be gladdened, and his 
lands secured from a stranger's gripe, by the birth of an heir. 

I should mention that Isabella sent to her brother, some six 
weeks from her departure, a short note, announcing he? mar 
riage with Heathcliff. It appeared diy and cold ; but at the 
bottom was dotted in with pencil an obscure apology, and an 
entreaty for kind remembrance and reconciliation, if her pro- 
ceeding had offended him, asserting that she could not help it 
then, and, being done, she had now no power to repeal it. 

Linton did not reply to this, I believe; and in a fortnight 
more I got a long letter which I considered odd, coming from 
the pen of a bride just out of the honeymoon. I'll read it, for I 
keep it yet. Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were 
valued living. It begins— 

" Dear Ellen, 

" I came last night to Wuthering Heights, and heard, for the 
first time, that CaBierine has been, and is yet, very ill. I must 
not write to her, I suppose, and my brother is either too angiy 
or too distressed to answer what I sent him. Still, I must vmte 
to somebody, and the only choice left me is you. 

" Inform Edgar that I'd give the worid to see his face again 
' — that my heart returned to Thrushcross Grange in twenty-four 
hours afl»r I left it, and is there at this moment, frill of warm 
feelings for him and Catherine ! I carCt follow it though^-^ 
(those words are underlined)-^they need not expect me, and 
they may draw what conclusions they please, taking care, how- 
ever, to lay nothing at the docnr of my wesJc vrill or deficient 
affection. 

" The remainder of the letter is for yourself alone. I want to 
ask you two questions : the first is — 

",How did you contrive to preserve the common sympathies 
of human nature when you resided here % I can not recognize 
any sentiment which those around share vrith me. 

" The second question I have great interest in : it is this — 

" Is Mr. Heatheliff* a man % If so, is he mad 1 And if not, is 
he a devil % I shan't tell my reasons for making this inquiry ; 
but I beseech you to explain, if you can, what I have married 
—that is, when you call to see me ; and you must call, Ellen, 
very soon. Don't write, but come, and bring me something 
from Edgar. 



120 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

" Now you sbaU hear how I have been received in my new 
home, as I am led to imagine the Heights will be. It is to 
amuse myself that I dwell on such subjects as the lack of exter- 
nal comforts ; they never occupy my thoughts except at the mo- 
ment when I miss them. I should laugh and dance for joy if I 
found their absence was the total of my miseries, and the rest 
was an unnatural dream ! 

** The sun set behind the Grange, as we turned upon the 
moors ; by that I judged it to be six o'clock ; and my compan- 
ion halted half-an-hour to inspect the park and the gardens, 
and, probably, the place itself as well as he could ; so it was 
dark when we dismounted in the paved yard of the farmhouse, 
and your old fellow-servant, Joseph, issued out to receive us by 
the light of a dip candle. He did it with a courtesy that re- 
dounded to his credit His fii*st act was to elevate his torch to 
a level with my face, squint malignantly, project his under lip, 
and turn away. 

" Then he took the two horses and led them into the stables, 
reappearing for the purpose of locking the outer gate, as if we 
lived in an ancient castle. 

*' Heathcliff staid to speak to him, and I entered the kitchen 
— a dingy, untidy hole ; I dare say you would not know it, it 
is so changed since it was in your charge. 

" By the fire stood a ruffianly child, strong in limb and dirty 
in garb, with a look of Catherine in his eyes and about his 
mouth* 

" * This is Edgar's legal nephew,' I reflected — * mine in a 
, manner ; I must shake hands, and — ^yes — I must kiss him. It 
is right to establish a good underatanding at the beginning.' 

''I approached, and, attempting to take his chubby fist, said, 

" * How dQ you do, my dear V 

" He replied in a jargon I did not comprehend. 

" ' Shall you and 1 1^ Mends, Hareton V was my next essay 
at conversation. 

** An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not 
* frame ofi)' rewarded my perseverance. 

" * Hey, Throttler, lad !' whispered the little wretch, rousing 
a half-bred bull-dog from its lair in a comer. * Now, wilt tun 
be ganging V he asked, authoritatively. 

" Love for my life urged a compliance ; I stepped over the 
toreshold to wait till the others should enter. Mr. Heathcliff 
was nowhere visible ; and Joseph, whom I followed to the sta- 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 121 

Mes, and requested to accompany me in, after staring and mut- 
tering to himself, screwed up nis nose and replied — 

" * Mim ! mim ! mim ! Did iver Christian oody hear owt like 
it i Minching un* munching ! Hah can aw tell whet ye say V 

***I say, I wish you to come with me into the house !' I cried, 
thinking him deaf, yet highly disgusted at his rudeness. 

" ' Nor nuh me ! Aw getten summut else to do,' he answered, 
and continued his work, moving his lantern jaws meanwhile, and 
surveying my dress and countenance (the former a great deal 
too fine, but the latter, I'm sure, as sad as he could desire) with 
sovereign contempt. 

" I walked round the yard, and through a wicket, to another 
door, at which I took the liberty of knocking, in hopes some 
more civil servant might show himself. 

" After a short suspense it was opened by a tall, gaunt man, 
without neckerchief, and otherwise extremely slovenly; his 
featui^es were lost in masses of shaggy hair that hung on his 
shoulders ; and his eyes, too, were like a ghostly Catherine's^ 
with all their beauty annihilated. 

" ' What's your business here V he demanded, grimly. * Who 
are you %* 

** * My name was Isabella Linton,' I replied. ' You've seen 
me before, sir. I'm lately married to Mr. HeathclifT; and he 
has brought me here-^I suppose by your permission.' 

'^ ' Is he come back, then {' asked the hermit, glaring like a 
hungry wolf. 

" ' Yes— we came just now,' I said ; * but he left me by the. 
kitchen door ; and when I would have gone in, your little boy 
played sentinel over t^e place, and frightened me off by the help 
of a bull-dog.' 

" * It's well the hellish villain has kept his word !' growled 
my future host, searching the darkness beyond me in expecta- 
tion of discovering Heathcliff, and then he indulged in a soliloquy 
of execrations, and threats of what he would have done had the 
' fiend* deceived him. 

" I repented having tried this second entrance ; and was almost 
inclined to slip avray before he finished cursing, but ere I could 
execute that intention, he ordered me in, and shut and re-fastened 
the door. 

'* There was a great fire, and that was all the light in the huge 
apartment, whose floor had grown a uniform gray ; and the once 
oiilliant pewter dishes, which used to attract my gaze when I 

F 



12d WUTH.SEINO HKIGHT8, 

was a girl, partook of a Bimilar obscunty, created by tarniBh and 
lust. 

'* I inquired -whether I might call the maid, and be conducted 
to a bed-room] Mr. Samshaw youchsafed no answer. He 
walked up and down, with his hands in his pockets, apparently 
quite forgetting my pi^esence ; and his abstraction was evidently 
BO deep, and his whole aspect so misanthropica!, that I shrank 
fix>m disturbing him again. 

" You'll not be surprised, Ellen, at my feeling particularly 
cheerless, seated in worse ihan solitude, on that inhospitable 
hearth, and remembering that four miles distant lay my deUght- 
fill home, containing the only people I loved on earth: and 
there might as well be the Atlantic to part us^ instead of those 
four miles. I could not overpass them ! 

** I questioned with myself — Where must I turn for comfort ? 
and— mind you don't tell Edgar, or Catherine-— above every 
sorrow beside, this rose pre-eminent — despair at finding nobody 
who could or would be my aUy against Heathcliff! 

** I had sought shelter at Wuthering Heights, almost gladly^ 
because I was secured by that arrangement from living alone 
with him ; but he knew the people we were coming among, 
and he did not fear their intermeddling. 

'* I sat and thought a doleful time ; the clock struck eight, and 
nine, and still my companion paced to and fix>, his head bent on 
his breast, and perfectly silent, unless a groan, or a bitter ejacu- 
lation forced itself out at intervals. 

'* I listened to detect a woman's voice in the house, and filled 
the interim with wild regrets, and dismal anticipations, which, 
at last, spoke audibly in irrepressible sighing, and weeping. 

" I was not aware how openly I grieved, till Eamshaw halted 
opposite, in his measured walk, and gave me a stare of newly 
awakened surprise* Taking advantage of his recovered atten- 
tion, I exclaimed — 

** * I'm tired with my journey, and I vrant to. go to bed ! 
Where is the maid-servant 1 Direct me to her, as she won't 
come to me !' 

" * We have none,' he answered 5 * you must w^it on yourself! 

** ' Where must I sleep, then %* I sobbed. I was beyond re- 
garding self-respect, weighed down by fetigue and wretched- 
-ness. 

** * Joseph vfdll show you Heathcliff 's chamber,' said he ; * open 
that door-— he's in there/ 



WUTHREIN6 HBiaHTS. i^B 



***1 was goiog to obey, but he suddenly arrested me, and 
added in the strangest tone — 

" * Be so good as to tuni your lock, and draw your bolt — 
don't omit it !' 

" * Well r I said. * But why, Mr. Eamshaw V I did not relish 
the notion of deliberately fastening myself in with Heathclifif. 

'S' Look here !' he replied, pulling from his waistcoat a curi- 
ously consti'ucted pistol, having a double, edged spring knife 
attached to the barrel. ' That's a great tempter to a desperate- 
man, is it not ? I can not resist going up wim this, every night, 
and trying his door : if once I find it open, he's done for ! 1 do 
it invariably, even though the minute h^fore I have been recall- 
ing a hundred reasons that i^ould make me refrain — it is some 
devil that urges me to thwart my own schemes by killing him. 
You fight against the devil, for love, as long as you may ; when 
the time comes, not all the angels in heaven shall save him ! 

** I surveyed the weapon inquisitively ; a hideous notion struck 
me. How powerful I should be possessing such an instrument ! 
I took it from his hand, and touched the blade. He looked 
astonished at the expression my face assumed during a brief 
second. It was not horror, it was covetousness. He snatched 
the pistol back, jealously ; shut the knife, cmd returned it to its 
concealment. 

" * I don't care if you tell him/ said he. * Put him on his 
guard, and watch for him. You know the terms we are on, 1 
see ; his danger does not shock you.' 

" * What has Heathcliff done to you V I asked. * In what has 
he wronged you, to warrant this appalling hatred ] Wouldn't 
it be wiser to bid him quit the house V 

** * No,' thundered Eamshaw, * should he offer to leave me, 
he's a dead man ; persuade him to attempt it, and you are a 
murderess ! Am I to lose aZ?, without a chance of retrieval 1 
Is Hareton to be a beggar t Oh, damnation ! I toill have it 
back ; and I'll have his gold too ; and then his blood ; and hell 
shall have his soul! It will be ten times blacker with that 
guest than ever it was before 1' 

" You've acquainted me, Ellen, with your old master's habits. 
He is clearly on the verge of madness— -he was so, last night, at 
least. I shuddered to be near him, and thought on the servant's 
ill-bred moroseness as comparatively agreeable. ^ 

" He now recommenced his moody walk, and I raised the 
latch, and escaped into the kitchen. 



124 WUTHEEINO HEIGHTS. 

*' Joseph was bending over the fire, peering into a large pan 
that swung above it ; and a wooden bowl of oatmeal stood on 
the settle close by. The contents of the pan began to boil, and 
he turned to plunge his hand into the bowl ; I conjectured that 
this preparation was probably ibr our supper, and, being hungry, 
I resolved it should be eatable — so crying out, sharply — * I^U 
make the porridge !' I removed the vessel out of his reach, 
and proceeded to take off my hat and riding habit. * Mr. Eam- 
shaw,' I continued, * directs me to wait on myself — I will. I'm 
not going to act the lady among you, for fear 1 should starve.' 

" * Gooid Lord !' he muttered, sitting down, and stroking his 
libbed stockings from the knee to the ankle. ' If they's tub be 
fresh ortherings — just when aw getten used tub two maisters, if 
aw mun hev a mistress set o'er my heead, it's loike time tub be 
flitting. Aw niver did think tub say t' day ut aw mud lave th 
owld place — ^but aw daht it's nigh at bend !' 

" This lamentation drew no notice from me ; I went briskly 
to work; sighing to remember a period when it would have 
been all merry fun ; but compelled speedily to drive off the 
remembrance. It racked me to recall past happiness, and the 
greater peril there was of conjuring up its apparition, the quicker 
the thible ran round, and the faster the handfuls of meal fell 
into the water. 

" Joseph beheld my style of cookery with growing indigna- 
tion. 

"'Thear!' he ejaculated. * Hareton, thah will'nt sup thy 
porridge tub neeght ; they'll be nowt bud lumps as big as maw 
nave. Thear, agean ! Aw'd fling in bowl un all, if aw wer 
yah! Thear, pale t' guilp off, un' then yah'U hae done wi't. 
Bang, bang. It's a marcy t' bothom isn't deaved aht !' 

" It was rather a rough mess, I own, when poured into the 
basins ; four had been provided, and a gallon pitcher of new 
milk was brought from the dairy, which Hareton seized, and 
commenced drinking and spilling from the expansive lip. 

" I expostulated, and desired that he should have his in a 
mug ; affirming that I could not taste the liquid treated so dirtily. 
The old cynic chose to be vastly offended at this nicety; as- 
suring me, repeatedly, that * the bairn was every bit as gooid' as 
I, * and every bit as wollsome,' and wondering how I could 
fashion to be so conceited; meanwhile, the infant ruflian con- 
tinued sucking ; and glowered up at me defyingly, as he slavered 
into the jug. 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 125 



** * I sball have my supper in another room,' I said. ' Have 
you no place you call a parlor ]' 

" * Parlor P he echoed, sneeringly , ^parlor ! Nay, we've noa 
parlors. If yah dunnut loike wer company, they's maister's ; 
un' if yah dunnut loike raaister, they's us.' 

" * Then I shall go jup-stairs,' I answered ; * Aow me a cham- 
ber!' 

" I put my basin on a ti*ay, and went myself to fetch some 
more milk. 

" With great grumblings, the fellow rose, and preceded me 
in my ascent : we mounted to the garrets ; he opening a door, 
now and then, to look into the apartments we passed. 

" * Here's a rahm,' he said, at last, flinging back a cranky 
board on hinges. • It's weel enough tuh ate a few porridge in. 
They's a pack uh com i' t' comer, thear, meeterly clane ; if 
yah're feared uh muckying yer grand silk does, spread yer 
hankerchir ut t' top on't.' 

" The * rahm' was a kind of lumber-hole smelling strong of 
malt and grain; various sacks of which articles were piled 
around, leaving a wide, bare space in the middle. 

" * Why, man !' I exclaimed, facing him angrily, * this is not a 
place to ^eep in. I wish to see my bed-room.' 

'* ' Bed-rume !' he repeated, in a tone of mockery. *Yah's 
see all t' hed-rumes thear is — yon's mine.' ^ 

''.He pointed into the second garret, only differing &om the 
first in being more naked about the walls, and having a large, 
low, curtainless bed, with an indigo-colored quilt, at one end. 

** * What do I want with yours V I retorted. * I suppose Mr. 
HeathclifE* does not lodge at the top of the house, does he?' 

** * Oh ! it's Maister HeathdiffTs yah're wenting 1" cried he, 
as if making a new discovery. * Couldn't ye uh said soa, at 
onst % un then, aw mud uh telled ye, baht all this wark, ut that's 
Just one yah cannut sea — ^he alias keeps it locked, un* nob'dy 
iver mells on't but hisseln.' 

"'You've a nice house, Joseph,' I could not refrain from 
observing, ' and pleasant inmates ; and I think the concentrated 
essence of all the madness in the world took up its abode in my 
brain the day I linked my fate with theirs ! However, that is 
not to the present purpose — ^there are other rooms. For heav- 
en's sake, be quick, and let me settle somewhere !' 

" He made no reply to this adjuration ; only plodding dog- 
gedly down the wooden steps, and halting before an apartment 



126 WUTHERING HEIGHTS, 



which, from that halt, and the superior quality of its furniture, X 
conjectured to be the best one. 

* There was a carpet, a good one; bat the pattern was ob- 
literated by dust; a fireplace hung with cut paper, dropping 
to pieces ; a handsome oak bedstead with ample crimson cur- 
tains of rather expensive material, and modem ms^e. But 
they had evidently experienced rough usage, the valances hung 
in festoons, wrenched from their rings; and the iron rod sup- 
porting them was bent in an arc, on one side, causing the drapery 
to trail upon the floor. The cbaiiB were also damaged, many 
of them severely ; and deep indentations deformed die panels 
of the walls. 

"I was endeavoring to gather resolution for entering, and 
taking possession, when my fool of a guide announced — 

" * This here is t' maister's.' 

" My supper by this time was cold, my appetite gone, and 
my patience exhausted. I insisted on being provided instantly 
with a place of refuge, and means of repose. 

" * Whear the divil,' began the relifi^ous elder. * The Lord 
bless us ! The Lord forgie us ! Whear the TieU, wold ye 
gang % ye marred, wearisome no wt ! Yah seen all bud Hare- 
ton's bit uf a chamber. They's nut another hoile tub lig dahn 
in.i' th' hahse !' 

"I was so vexed, I flung my tray, and its contents on the 
ground; and then seated myself at the stair's head, hid my face 
in my hands, and cried. 

" * Ech ! ech !' exclaimed Joseph. * Weel done. Miss Cathy I 
Hahsiver, t* maister sail just tuin'le o'er them brocken pots ; 
un' then we's hear summut ; we's hear hah it's tub be. Gooid- 
fiir-nowt madling ! yah desarve pining froo this tub Chnrstmas, 
flinging t* precious gifts uh God under fooit i' yer flaysome 
rages ! Bud, aw'm mista'en if yah shew yer sperrit lang. 
Will Heathclifif bide sich bonny ways, think ye % Aw nobbut 
wish he mub cotch ye i' that plisky. Aw nobbut wish he may.' 

"And so he went scolding to. his den beneath, taking the 
candle with him, and I remained in the dark. 

** The period of reflection succeeding this silly action, com- 
pelled me to admit the necessity of smothering my pride, and 
choking my wrath, and bestirring myself to remove its effects. 

"An unexpected aid presently appeared in the shape of 
Throtder, whom I now recognized as a sofi of our old Skulker ; 
it had spent its vdielphood at the Grange, and was given by my 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 127 

father to Mr. Hindley. I fancy it knew me— it pushed its nose 
against mine by way of salute, and then hastened to devour the 
porrif^^e, while I groped from step to step, collecting the shat- 
tered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the 
bannister with my pocket-handkerchief. 

"Our lahors werq scarcely over when I heard Eamshaw's 
tread in the passage ; my assistant tucked in his tail, and pressed 
to the wall ; I stole into the nearest doorway. The dog's en- 
deavor to avoid him was unsuccessful, as I guessed by a scutter 
down stairs, and a prolonged, piteous yelping. I had better 
luck. He passed on, entered his chamber, and shut the door. 

" Directly afrer, Joseph came up with Hareton, to put him 
to bed. I had found shelter in Hareton's room, and the old 
man on seeing me, said — 

" * They's rahm fur boath yah, un yer pride, nah, aw sud 
think i' th' hahse. It's empty ; yah muh hev it all tub yerseln, 
un Him as alias maks a third, i' sich ill company !" 

" Gladly did I take advantage of this intimation ; and the 
minute I flung myself into a chair, by the fire, I nodded, and 
slept. 

"My slumber was deep and sweet; though over far too 
soon. Mr. Heathcliff awoke me; he had just come in, and 
demanded, in his loving manner, what I was doing there 1 

" I told him the cause of my staying up so late — that he had 
the key of our room in his pocket. 

" The adjective our gave mortal offbnce. He swore it was . 
not, nor never should be mine ; and he'd — ^but I'll not repeat 
his language, nor describe his habitual conduct ; he is ingenious 
and unresting in seeking to gain my abhorrence ! I sometimes 
wonder at him, with an intensity that deadens my fear : yet, 
I assure you, a tiger, or a venomous serpent could not rouse 
terror in me ecjual to that which he wakens. He told me of 
Catherine's illness, and accused my brother of causing it; 
promising that I should be Edgar's proxy in suffering, till he 
could get a hold of him. 

" I do hate him — I am wretched — I have been a fool ! Be- 
ware of uttering one breath of this to any one at the Grange. 
I shall expect you every day — don't disappoint me ! 

«« Isabella." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

As soon as I had perused this epistle, I went to the master, 
and informed him that his sister had arrived at the Heights, and 
sent me a letter expressing her sorrow for Mrs. Linton's situa- 
tion, and her ardent desire to see him ; with a wish that he 
would transmit to her, as early as possible, some token of for- 
giveness by me. 

" Forgiveness V* said Linton. " I have nothing to forgive 
her, Ellen— you may call at Wuthering Heights this afternoon, 
if you like, and say that I am not angry, but I'm sarri/ to have 
lost her : especially as I can never think she'll be happy. It is 
out of the question ray going to see her, however ; we are eter- 
nally divided ; and should she really vnsh to oblige me, let her 
persuade the villain she has married to leave the country.^ 

" And you won't write her a little note, sirt" I asked, implor- 
ingly. 

"No," he answered; "it is needless. My communication 
with Heathclififs family shall be as sparing as his with mine. It 
shall not exist!" 

Mr. Edgar's coldness depressed me exceedingly ; and all the 
way from the Grrange, I puzzled my brains how to put more 
' heart into what he said, when I repeated it ; and how to soften 
his refusal of even a few lines to console Isabella. 

I dare say she had been on the watch for me since morning : 
I saw her looking through the lattice, as I came up the garden 
causeway, and I nodded to her ; but she drew back, as if afraid 
of being observed. 

I entered without knocking. There never was such a dreary, 
dismal scene as the formerly cheerftil house presented ! I must 
confess that, if I had been in the young lady's place, I would at 
least have swept the hearth, and wiped the tables with a duster. 
But she already partook of the pervading spirit of neglect which 
encompassed her. Her pretty face was wan and listless ; her 
hair uncurled ; some locks hanging lankly down, and some care- 
lessly twisted round her head. Probably she had not touched 
her dress since yester-evening. 

Hindley was not there. Mr. Heathcliff sat at a table, turning 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 129 

over some papers in his pocket-book ; but be rose wben I ap- 
peared, asked me bow I did, quite friendly, and offered me a 
cbair. 

He was tbe only thing tbere tbat seemed decent, and I thought 
he never looked better. So much had circumstances altered 
their positions, that he would certainly have struck a stranger 
as a bom and bred gentleman, and his wife as a thorough little 
slattern ! 

She came forward eagerly to greet me; and held out one 
hand to take the expected letter. 

I shook my head. She wouldn't understand the hint, but fol- 
lowed me to a sideboard, where I went to lay my bonnet, and 
importuned me, in a whisper, to give her directly what I had 
brought. 

HeathcliiF guessed the meaning of her manoeuvres, and said, 

" If you have got any thing for Isabella, as no doubt you 
have, Nelly, give it to her. You needn't make a secret of it ; 
we have no secrets between us." 

" Oh, I have nothing," I replied, thinking it best to speak the 
truth at once. " My master bid me tell his sister that she must 
not expect either a letter or a visit from him at present. He 
sends his love, ma'am, and his vdshes for your happiness, and his 
pardon for the grief you have occasioned ; but he thinks that 
afler this time his household and the household here should 
drop intercommunication ; as nothing good could come of keep- 
ing it up. 

Mrs. Heathcliflrs lip quivered slightly, and she returned to 
her seat in the window. Her husband took his stand on the 
hearthstone, near me, and began to put questions concerning 
Catherine. 

I told him as much as I thought proper of her illness, and he 
extorted from me, by cross-examination, most of the facts con- 
nected with its origin. 

I blamed her, as she deserved, for bringing it all on herself; 
and ended by hoping that he would follow Mr. Linton's exam- 
ple, and avoid future interference ivith his family, for good or 
evil. 

" Mrs. Linton is now just recovering," I said ; " she'll never 
be like she was, but her life is spared, and if you really have a 
regard for her, you'll shun crossing her way again. Nay, you'll 
move out of this country entirely; and that you may not regret 
it, 111 inform you Catherine Linton is as different now from 



130 W0THERING HEIGHTS. 

your old friend Catherine Eamshaw as that young lady is dif- 
ferent from rae ! Her appearance is changed greatly, her char- 
acter much more so ; and the person who is compelled of neces- 
sity to be her companion, will only sustain his affection hereafter 
by the remembrance of what she once was, by common human- 
ity, and a sense of duty!" 

" That is quite possible," remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself 
to seem calm, "quite possible that your master should have 
nothing but common humanity, and a sense of duty to fall back 
upon. But do you imagine that I shall leave Catherine to his 
duty and humanity ? and can you compare my feelings respect- 
ing Catherine to his ^ Before you leave this house, I must exact 
a promise from you, that you'll get me an interview with her — 
consent or refuse, I tviU see her ! What do you sayl" 

** I say Mr. Heathcliff*," I replied, " you must not — you never 
shall through my means. Another encounter between you and 
the master would kill her altogether !" 

" With your aid that may be avoided," he continued ; " and 
should there be danger of such an event — should he be the cause 
of adding a single trouble more to her existence — -why, I think 
I shall be justmed in going to extremes 1 I wish you had sin- 
cerity enough to tell me whether Catherine would suffer greatly 
from his loss. The fear that she would restrains me, and there 
you see the distinction between our feelings. Had he been in 
my place, and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred that 
turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against 
him. You may look incredulous if you please ! I never would 
have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. 
The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out 
and drank his blood! But till then, if you don't believe me, 
you don't know me— till then, I would have died by inches 
before I touched a single hair of his head I" 

"And yet," I interrupted, "you have no scruples in com- 
pletely ruining all hopes of her perfect restoration, by thrusting 
yourself into her remembrance, now when she has nearly for- 
gotten you, and involving her in a new tumult of discord and 
distress." 

" You suppose she has nearly forgotten me V* he said. " Oh, 
Nelly ! you know she has not ! You know as well as I do, 
that for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thou- 
sand on me ! At a most miserable period of my life, I had a 
notion of the kind ; it haunted me on my return to the neigh- 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 131 

borhood, last summer, but only her own assurance could make 
me admit tbe horrible idea again. And then, Linton would be 
nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the dreams that ever I dreamed. 
Two words would comprehend my future — death and Jiell — ex- 
istence, after losing her, would be helL 

" Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Ed- 
gar Linton's attachment more than mine ; if he loved with all 
the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty 
years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep 
as I have ; the sea could be as readily contained in that horse- 
trough as her whole affection be monopolized by him. Tush ! 
He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. 
It is not in him to be loved like me ; how can she love in him 
what he has not 1" 

" Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two 
people can be !" cried Isabella, vnth sudden vivacity. '* No one 
has a right to talk in that manner, and I won't hear my brother 
depreciated in silence !" 

" Your brother is wondrous fond of you, too, isn't he 1" ob • 
served Heathcliff, scornfully. "He turns you adrift on the 
world with surprising alacrity." 

" He is not aware of what I suffer," she replied. " I didn^t 
tell him that" 

" You have been telling him something, then— you have writ- 
ten, have you |" * 

''To say that I was married, I did write — you saw the note." 

" And nothing since 1" 

" No." 

" My, young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change 
of -coi^dition," I remarked. "Somebody's love comes short in 
her «a8e, obviously — ^whose, I may guess; but perhaps I 
shouldi^t say." 

" I should guess it was her own," said Heathcliff. " She de- 
generates into a mere slut ! She is tired of trying to please me, 
uncommonly early. You'd hai'dly credit it, but the very mor- 
row of our wedding, she was weeping to go home. However, 
she 11 suit this house so much the better for not being over nice, 
and 111 take care she does not disgrace me by rambling abroad." 

"Well, sir, returned I, "I hope you'll consider that Mra 
Heathcliff is accustomed to be looked afler, and waited on ; and 
that she has been brought up like an only daughter whom every 
one was ready to sei-ve. You must let her have a maid to keep 



132 WUTHEKING HEIGHTS. 



things tidy about her, and you must treat her kindly. Whatever 
be your notion of Mr. Edgar, you can not doubt diat she has a 
capacity for strong attachments, or she wouldn't have abandon- 
ed the elegancies, and comforts, and fiiends of her former home, 
to fix contentedly in such a wilderness as this, with you.'' 

" She abandoned them under a delusion," he answered, *' pic- 
turing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indul- 
gences from my chivalrous devotion. I can hardly regard her 
in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persist- 
ed in forming a fabulous notion of my character, and acting on 
the false impressions she cherished. But at last, I think she be- 
gins to know me— I don't perceive the silly smiles and grimaces 
Siat provoked me at first ; and the senseless incapability of dis- 
cemine that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of 
her infatuation, and herself. It was a remarkable effort of per- 
spicacity to discover that I did not love her. I believed, at one 
time, no lessons could teach her that! and yet it is poorly 
learned ; for this morning she announced, as a piece of appalling 
intelligence, that I had actually succeeded in making her hate 
me ! A positive labor of Hercules, I assure you ! If if be 
achieved, 1 have cause to return thanks ; can I trust your a/iser- 
tion, Isabella — are you sure you hate me 1 If I let you ^one 
for half a day, won't you come sighing and wheedling to me 
again 1 I dare say she would rather I had seemed all tender- 
ness before you ; it wounds her vanity to have the truth exposed. 
But I don't care who knows that the passion was wholly on one 
side, and I never told her a lie about it. She can not accuse 
me of showing a bit of deceitful soflness. The first thing she 
saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her 
little dog ; and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uKered 
were a wish that I had the hanging of every being belonging to 
her, except one : possibly, she took that exception for herself. 
But no brutality disgusted her— I suppose she has an innate ad- 
miration of it, if only her precious person were secure fi-om in- 
jury! Now, was it not the depth of absurdity — of genuine 
idiocy — for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach to dream 
that I could love her 1 Tell your master, Nelly, that I never, 
in all my life, met with such an abject thing as she is ; she even 
disgraces the name of Linton; and I've sometimes relented, 
firom pure lack of invention, in my experiments on what she 
could endure, and still creep shamefully cringing back ! But 
tell him also to set his fraternal and magisterial heart at ease— 



WUTHERIN6 HE] G^H T B. 133 

that I keep stridiy within the limits of the law — I have avoided, 
up to this period, giving her the slightest right to claim a sepa- 
ration ; and what's more, she'd thank nobody for dividing us — 
if she desired to go she might — ^the nuisance of her presence 
outweigh the gratification to. be derived from tormenting 
her!" 

** Mr. Heathcliff," said I, " this is the talk of a madman, and 
your wife, most likely, is convinced you are mad ; and, for that 
reason, she has borne with you hitheito : but now that you say 
she may go, she'll doubtless avail herself of the permission. 
You are not so bewitched ma'am, are you, as to remain with 
him of your own accord V 

" Take care, Ellen !" answered Isabella, her eyes sparkling 
irefuUy; there was no misdoubting, by their expression, the 
full success of her partner's endeavors to make himself de- 
tested. " Don't put faith in a single word he speaks. He's a 
lying fiend, a monster, and not a human being ! I've been told 
I might leave him before ; and I've made the attempt, but I 
dare not repeat it ! Only Ellen, promise you'll not mention a 
syllable of his infamous conversation to my brother or Catherine. 
Whatever he may pretend, he wishes to provoke Edgar to des- 
peration. He says he has married me on purpose to obtain 
power over him ; and he shan't obtain it — I'll die first ! I just 
hope, I pray, that he may forget his diabolical prudence, and 
kill me ! The single pleasure I can imagine, is to die, or to see 
him dead !" 

"There — that will do for the present!" said HeathcliE 
"If you are called upon in a court of law, you'll remember 
her language, Nelly ! And take a good look at that counte- 
nance — she^ near the point which would suit me. No, you're 
not fit to be your own guardian, Isabella now; and I, being 
your legal protector, must retain you in my custody, however 
distasteful the obligation may be. Go up-stairs ; I have some- 
thing to say to Ellen Dean, in private. That's not the way— 
up-stairs, I tell you I Why this is the road up-stairs, child !" 

He seized, and thrust her from the ix)om; and returned 
muttering, 

" I have no pity ! I have no pity ! The worms writhe, the 
moi*e I yearn to crush out their entrails ! It is a moral teeth- 
ing, and I grind with greater energy, in proportion to the in- 
crease of pain." - 

" Do you understand what the word pity means ?" 1 said. 



184 W0XH EKING HEIGHTS. 



hastening to resume my bonnet. " Did you ever feel a touch 
of it in your lifer 

" Put that down !" he interrupted, perceiving my intention 
to depart " You are not going yet. Come here now, Nelly ; 
I must either persuade or compel you to aid me in ^IfiUing 
my determination to see Catherine, and that without delay. 
I swear that I meditate no harm ; I don't desire to cause any 
disturbance, or to exasperate or insult Mr. Linton ; I only wish 
to hear from herself how she is, and why she has been ill ; and 
to ask if any thing that I could do would be of use to her. 
Last night I was in the Grange garden six hours, and I'll 
return there to-night ; and every night I'll haunt the place, and 
every day, till I find an opportunity of entering. If Edgar 
Linton meets me, I shall not hesitate to knock him down, and 
give him enough to ensure his quiescence while I stay. If his 
servants oppose me, I shall threaten them off vnth these pistols. 
But wouldn't it be better to prevent my coming in contact with 
them, or their master 1 And you could do it so easily ! I'd 
warn you when I came, and then you might let me in unob- 
served, as soon as she was alone, and watch till I departed — 
your conscience quite calm, you would be hindering mischief." 

I protested against playing that treacherous part in my em- 
ployer's house ; and besides, I urged the cm city and selfishness 
of his destroying Mrs. Linton's tranquillity, for his satisfaction. 

" The commonest occurrence startles her painfully," I said. 
"She's all nerves, and she couldn't beai* the surprise, I'm 
positive. Don't persist, sir } or else, I shall be obliged to in- 
form my master of your designs, and he'll take measures to 
secure his house and its inmates from any such unwarrantable 
intrusions 1" 

" In that case, I'll take measures to secure you, woman !" 
exclaimed Heathcliff; " you shall not leave Wuthering Heights 
till to-moiTow morning. It is a foolish story to assert that 
Catherine could not bear to see me ; and as to surprising her, 
I don't desii*e it, you must prepare her — ask her if I may come. 
You say she never mentions my name, and that I am never 
mentioned to her. To whom should she mention me, if I am a 
forbidden topic in the house ? She thinks you are all spies for 
her husband. Oh, I've no doubt she's in hell among you ! I 
guess, by her silence, as much as any thing, what she feels. 
1 ou say she is oflen restless, and anxious-looking — is that a 
proof of tranquillity 1 You talk of her mind being unsettled 



WUTUERING HEIGHTS. 135 



— ^how the devil could it be otherwise, in her firightful isolation 1 
And that insipid, paltry creature attending her from duty and 
humanity / From pity and charity. Ho might as well plant 
an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he 
can restore her to vigor in the soil of his shallow cares ! Let 
us settle it at once ; will you stay here, and am I to fight my 
way to Catherine over Linton and his footmen 1 Or will you 
be my fiiend, as you have been hitherto, and do what I re- 
quest 1 Decide ! because there is no reason for my lingering 
another minute, if you persist in your stubborn ill-nature." 

Well, Mr. Lock wood, I argued, and complained, and flatly 
refused him fifly times ; but, in the long run, he forced me to 
an agreement. I engaged to carry a letter from him to my 
mistress ; and should she consent, I promised to let him have 
intelligence of Linton's next absence from home, when he 
might come, and get in as he was able — I wouldn't be there, 
and my fellow servants should be equally out of the way. 

Was it right or wrong! I fear it was wrong, though ex- 
pedient. I thought I prevented another explosion by my com- 
pliance : and I thought too, it might ci-eate a favorable crisis in 
Catherine's mental illness : and then I remembered Mr. Edgar's 
stem rebuke of my carrying tales ; and I tried to smooth away 
all disquietude on the subject, by affirming with frequent itera- 
tion, that this betrayal of trust, if it merited so harsh an appella- 
tion, should be the last. 

Notwithstanding, my journey homeward was sadder than my 
journey thither ; and many misgivings I had ere I could prevail 
on myself to put the missive into Mrs. Linton's hand. 

But here is Kenneth — I'll go down and tell him how much 
better you are. My history is dree^ as we say, and will serve to 
while away another morning. — 

Dree, and dreary ! I reflected as the good woman descended 
to receive the doctor; and not exactly of the kind which I 
should have chosen to amuse me ; but never mind ! Ill extract 
wholesome medicines from Mrs. Dean's bitter herbs ; and first- 
ly, let me beware of the fascination that lurks in Catherine 
Heathcliff's brilliant eyes. I should be in a curious taking, if I 
surrendered my heart to that young pei-son, and the daughter 
turned out a second edition of the mother ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

Another week oyer — and I am so many days nearer health 
and sprine ! I have now heard all my neighboi-'s history at dif> 
ferent sittrngs, as the housekeeper could spare time from more 
important occupations. I'll continue it in her own words, only 
a httle condensed. She is, on the whole, a very fair narrator, 
and I don't think I could improve her style. — 

In the evening, she said, the evening of my visit to the Heights, 
I knew as well as if I saw him, that Mr. Heathcliff was about 
the place ; and I shunned going out, because I still carried his 
letter in my pocket, and didn't want to be threatened, or teased 
any more. 

I had made up my mind not to give it till my master went 
somewhere ; as I could not guess how its receipt would affect 
Catherine. The consequence was, that it did not reach her 
before the lapse of three days. The fourth was Sunday, and I 
brought it into her room, after the family were gone to church. 

There was a man servant left to keep the house with me, and 
we genei-ally made a practice of locking the doors during the 
hours of service ; but on that occasion the weather was so warm 
and pleasant that I set them wide open ; and to fulfill my en- 
gagement, as I knew who would be coming, I told my com- 
panion that the mistress wished very much for some oranges, 
and he must run over to the village and get a few, to be paid 
for on the morrow. He departed, and I went up-stairs. 

Mrs. Linton sat in a loose, white dress, vdth a light shawl 
over her shoulders, in the recess of the open window, as usual. 
Her thick, long hair had been partly removed at the beginning 
of her illness ; and now she wore it simply combed over her 
temples Bui neck. Her appearance was altered, as I had told 
Heathcliff, but when she was calm, there seemed unearthly 
beauty in the change. 

The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and 
melancholy softness : they no longer gave the impression of 
looking at the objects around her; they appeared always to 
gaze beyond, and far beyond — ^you would have said out of this 
world — then the paleness of her face, its haggard aspect having 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 137 



vanished as she recovered flesh, and the peculiar expression 
arising from her mental state, thoush painfully suggestive of 
their causes, added to the touching interest, which she wakened, 
and invariably to me, I know, and to any person who saw her, 
I should think, refuted more tangible proo& of convalescence, 
and stamped her as one doomed to decay. 

A book lay spread on the sill before her, and the scarcely 
perceptible wind fluttered its leaves at intervals. I believe 
Linton had laid it there, for she never endeavored to divert her- 
self with reading, or occupation of any kind ; and he would 
spend many an hour in trymg to entice her attention to some 
subject which had formerly been her amusement. 

She was conscious of his aim, and in her better moods en 
dured his efforts placidly; only showing their uselessness- by 
now and then suppressing a wearied sigh, and checking him at 
last with the saddest of smiles and kisses. At other times she 
would turn petulantly away, and hide her face in her hands, or 
even push him off* angrily; and then he took care to let her 
alone, for he was certain of doing no good. 

Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing ; and the full, mel- 
low flow of the beck in the valley, came soothingly on the ear. 
It was a sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the 
summer foliage, which drowned that music about the Grange 
when the trees were in leaf. At Wuthering Heights it always 
sounded on quiet days, following a great thaw, or a season of 
steady rain — and of Wuthering Heights Catherine was think- 
ing, as she listened ; that is, if she thought or listened at all ; 
but she had the vague, distant look I mentioned before, which 
expressed no recognition of material things either by ear or eye. 

" There's a letter for you, Mrs. Linton," I said, gently insert- 
ing it in one hand that rested on her knee. *' You must read 
it immediately, because it wants an answer. Shall I break the 
seall" 

" Yes," she answered, without altering the direction of her 
eyes. 

I opened it — it was very short 

" Now," I continued, " read it." 

She drew away her hand, and let it fall. I replaced it in 
her lap, and stood waiting till it should please her to glance 
down ; but that movement was so long delayed that at last I 
resumed — 

" Must I read it, ma'am ? It is from Mr. Heathcliffl" 



WUTHEEllVG HEIGHTS. 



There was a start, and a troubled gleam of recollection, and 
a struggle to arrange her ideas. She lifted the letter, and 
seemed to peruse it ; and when she came to the signature she 
sighed ; yet still I found she had not gathered its import ; for 
upon my desiring to hear her reply, she merely pointed to the 
name, and gazed at me with moumiul and qaestioning eagerness. 

" Well, he wishes to see you," said I, guessing her need of 
an interpreter. " He's in the garden by this time, and im- 
patient to know what answer I shall bring." 

As I spoke, I observed a large dog, lying on the sunny grass 
beneath, raise its ears, as if about to bark ; and then smoothing 
them back, announce by a wag of the tail that some one 
approached whom it did not consider a stranger. 

Mrs. Linton bent forward, and listened breathlessly. The 
minute after a step traversed the hall ; the open house was too 
tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking in : most likely he 
supposed that I was inclined to shirk my promise, and so 
resolved to trust to his own audacity. 

With straining eagerness Catherine gazed toward the en- 
trance of her chamber. He did not hit the right room directly ; 
she motioned me to admit him ; but be found it out ere I could 
reach the door, and in a stride or two was at her side, and had 
her grasped in his arms. 

He neither spoke nor loosed his hold for some five minutes, 
during which period he bestowed more kisses^ than ever he 
gave in his life before, I dare say ; but then my mistress had 
kissed him first, and I plainly saw that he could hardly bear, 
for downright agony, to look into her face ! The same con- 
viction had stricken him as me, from the instant he beheld her, 
that there was no prospect of ultimate recovery there— she was 
fated, sure to die. 

"Oh, Cathy! Oh, iny life! how can I bear it?" was the 
first sentence he uttered, in a tone that did not seek to disguise 
his despau:. 

And now he stared at her so earnestly that I thought the 
very intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes ; but 
they burned with anguish, they did not melt. 

"What now?" said Catherine, leaning back, and returning 
bis look with a suddenly clouded brow — ^her humor was a mere 
vane for constantly varying caprices. " You and Edgar have 
broken my heart, Heathcliff! And you both come to bewail 
the deed to me, as if you were the people to be pitied ! I shall 



WUTHSEIN6 HEIGHTS. 1S9 



n<rt pity you, not I. You have killed me — and thriven on it, I 
think. How strong you are ! How many years do you mean 
to live after I am gone 1 " 

Heathcliff had &elt on one knee to embrace her ; he at- 
tempted to rise, but she seized bis hair, and kept him down. 

*• I wish I coi^d hold you," she continued, bitterly, " till we 
were both dead ! I shouldn't care what you sufiPered. I care 
nothing fi>r your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer 1 I do ! 
WiD you forget me — will you be happy when I am in the 
-earth f Will you say, twenty years hence, * That's the grave oi 
Catherine Eamshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched 
to lose her ; but it is past. I've loved many others since — my 
children are dearer to me than she was ; and, at death, I shall 
not rejoice that I am going to her, I shall be sorry that I must 
leave them !' Will you say so, Heathcliff V 

" Don't torture me till I'm as mad as yourself," cried he, 
wrenching his head fi*ee, and grinding his teeth. 

The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful 
picture. Well might Catherine deem that Heaven would be a 
land of exile to her, unless, with her mortal body, she cast 
away her moital character alsa Her present countenance had 
a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and bloodless lip and 
scintillating eye ; and she retained in her closed fingers a 
portion of the locks she had been grasping. As to her com- 
panion, while raising himself with one hand, he had taken her 
arm with the other ; and so inadequate was his stock of gentle- 
ness to the requirements of her condition, that on his letting go, 
I saw four distinct impressions left blue in the colorless skin. 

" Are you possessed with a devil," he pursued, savagely, ** to 
talk in thst manner to me, when you are dying ^ Do you 
reflect that all those words will be branded in my memory, 
and eating deeper eternally, afler you have left mel You 
know you lie to say I have killed you ; and, Catherine, you 
know that I could as soon forget you as my existence ! Is it 
not sufficient for your infernal selfishness that while you are at 
peace I shall vn-ifiie in the torments of hell ? " 

" I shall not be at peace," moaned Catherine, recalled to a 
sense of physical weakness by the violent, unequal throbbing 
of her heart, which beat, visibly and audibly, under this excess 
of agitation. 

She said nothing further till the paroxysm was over ; then 
she continued, more kindly— 



140 WUTHESINO HEIGHTS. 



''I'm not wishing you gi*eater torment than I have, Heath- 
cliff I I only wish us never to be parted — and should a word of 
mine distress you hereafter, think I feel the same distress un- 
derground, and for my own sake, forgive me ! Come here 
and kneel down again I You never harmed me in your life 
Nay, if you nurse anger, that will be worse to remember than 
my harsh words ! Won't you come here again 1 Do !" 

Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and leaned over, 
but not so far as to let her see his face, which was livid with 
emotion. She bent round to look at him ; he would not per- 
mit it ; turning abruptly, he walked to the fireplace, where he 
stood silent, with his back toward us. 

Mi's. Linton's glance foHowed him suspiciously ; every move- 
ment woke a new sentiment in her. After a pause, and a pro- 
longed gaze, she resumed, addressing me in accents of indig- 
nant disappointment. 

" Oh, you see, Nelly ! he would not relent a moment, to keep 
me out o^ the grave ! That is how I'm loved ! Well, never 
mind ! That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet ; and 
take him with me — he's in ray soul. And," added she, musing- 
ly, '' the thing that irks me most is this shattereil prison, after 
all. I'm tired, tired of being inclosed here. I'm wearying to 
escape into that glorious world, and to be always there ; not 
seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the 
walls of an aching heart : but really with it, and in it. Nelly, 
you think you are better and more fortunate than I; in full 
health and strength — you are sorry for me— very soon that 
will be altered. I shall be sorry for you, I shall be incom- 
parably beyond and above you alL I wonder he won't be near 
me!" She went on to herself. "I thought he wished it. 
Heathcliff, dear ! you should not be sullen now. Do come to 
me, Heathcliff." 

In her eagerness, she rose and supported herself on the arm 
of the chair. At that earnest appeal, he turned to her, looking 
absolutely desperate. His eyes wide, and wet at last, flashed 
fiercely on her; his breath heaved convulsively. An instant 
tiiey held asunder ; and then how they met I hardly saw, but 
Catherine made a spring, and he caught her, and they were 
locked in an embrace from which I thought my mistress would 
never be released alive. In fact, to my eyes, she seemed di- 
rectly insensible. He flung himself into the nearest seat, and 
on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted, he 



WUTBBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 141 

gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her 
to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel as if 1 were in the 
company di a creature of my own species ; it appeared that he 
would not understand, though I spoke to him ; so I stood off 
and held my tongue, in great perplexity. 

A movement of Catherine's relieved me a little presently: 
she put up her hand to clasp his neck, and bring her cheek to 
his, as he held her ; while he, in return, covering her with fran- 
tic caresses, said, wildly — 

"You teach me now how cruel youVe been — cruel and 
false. Why did you despise me 1 Why did you beti*ay your 
own heart, Cathy 1 I have not one word of comfort — you de- 
serve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, 
and cry ; and wring out my kisses and teai*s. They'll bhght 
you — they'll damn you. You loved me — ^then what right had 
you to leave me ? What right — answer me — ^for the poor fan- 
cy you felt for Linton 1 Because misery, and degradation, and 
death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have 
parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken 
your heait — you have broken it — and in breaking it, you have 
broken mine. So much the worse for me, that I am strong. 
Do I want to live ? What kind of living will it be when you 
— Oh, God ! would you live with your soul in the grave V* 

" Let me alone. Let me alone," sobbed Catherine. " If I've 
done wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough ! You left me too ; 
but I won't upbraid you ! I forgive yout Forgive me !" 

'* It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and fee) 
those wasted hands," he answered. " Kiss me again ; and 
don't let m^ see your eyes ! I forgive what you have done to 
me. I love my murderer — ^but yours / How can I V* 

They were silent — ^tlieir faces hid against each other, and 
washed by each other's tears. At least,. I suppose the weeping 
was on both sides ; as it seemed Heathcliff could weep on a 
great occasion like this. 

I grew very uncomfortable, meanwhile; for the afternoon^ 
wore fast away, the man whom I had sent off returned from his 
errand ; and I could distinguish, by the shine of the westering 
sun up the valley, a concourse thickening outside Gimmerton 
chapel porch. 

" Service is over. My master will be here in half an hour." 

Heathcliff groaned a curse, and strained Catherine closer- 
she never moved. 



142 ^WUTHBRXNO HBI Q HT B. 

Ere long I perceived a group of the servants passing up the 
road toward the kitchen wing. Mr. Linton was not far behind; 
he opened the gate himself, and sauntered slowly up, probably 
enjoying the lovely afternoon that breathed as soft as summer. 

" Now he is here," I exclaimed. " For Heaven's sake, 
hurry down ! You'll not meet any one on the front stairs. 
Do be quick ; and stay among the trees till he is fairly in." 

*' I must go, Cathy/' said Heathcliff, seeking to extricate 
himself from his companion's arms. '' But, if I live, I'll see 
you ag^in before you are asleep. I won't stray five yards fi'om 
your window." 

** You must not go !" she answered, holding him as firmly as 
her strength allowed. " You shall not, I tell you." 

** For one hour," he pleaded, earnestly. 

" Not for one minute," she replied. 

" I must — Linton vnU be up immediately," persisted the 
alarmed intruder. 

He would have risen, and unfixed her fingers by the act- 
she clung fast, gasping ; there was mad resolution in her face. 

" No !" she shrieked. " Oh, don't, don't go. It is the last 
time ! Edgar will not hurt us. Heathcliff, I shall die ! I shall 
die I" 

" Damn the fooL There he is," cried Heathcliff sinking 
back into his seat. '' Hush, my darling ! Hush, hush, Cathe- 
rine ! I'll stay. If he shot me so, I'd expire widi a blessing 
on my lips." 

And there they were fast again. I heard my master mount- 
ing the stairs — ^the cold sweat ran firom my forehead ; I was 
horrified. 

" Are you going to listen to her ravings ?" I said passionately. 
" She does not know what she says. Will you ruin her, be- 
cause she has not wit to help herself? Get up ! you could 
be free instantly. That is the most diabolical deed that ever 
you did. We are all done for — ^master, mistress, and servant." 

I wrung my hands, and cried out ; and Mr. Linton hastened 
his step at the noise. In the midst of my agitation, I was sin- 
cerely glad to observe that Catherine's arms had fallen relaxed, 
and her head hung down. 

" She's fainted or dead," I thought, " so much the better. 
Far better that she should be dead, than lingering a burden 
and a misery-maker to all around her." 

Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with astonish- 



VVUTHBRING HEIGHTS* 143 



ment and tage. What he meant to do, I can not tell ; however 
the other stopped all demonstrations at once, hy placing the 
lifeless looking form in his arms. 

" Look there/* he said, " unless you be a fiend, help her first, 
then you shall speak to me 1" 

He walked into the parlor, and sat down. Mr. Linton sum 
moned me, and with great difficulty, and after resorting to many 
means, we managed to restore her to sensation ; but she was all 
bewildered ; she sighed and moaned and knew nobody. Edgar, 
in his anxiety for her forgot her hated friend. I did not. 1 
went, at the earliest opportunity, and besought him to depart, 
affirming that Catherine was better, and he should hear from me 
in the morning, how she passed the night. 

*' I shall not refiise to go out of doors," he answered, " but 
I shall stay in the garden ; and, Nelly, mind you keep your 
word to-morrow. I shall be under those larch trees, mind ! or 
I pay another visit, whether Linton be in or not." 

He sent a rapid glance through the half-open door of the 
chamber, and ascertaining that what I stated was apparently 
true, delivered the house of hia luckless presence. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

About twelve o'clock that night, was bom the Catheiine you 
saw at Wuthering Heights^ a puny, seven months' child ; and 
two hours after, die mother died, having never recovered suffi 
caent consciousness to miss Heathcliff, or know Edgar. 

The latter's distraction at his bereavement is a sulyect too 
painfiil to be dwelt on ; its after eftects ^owed how deep the 
sorrow sunk. 

A great addition, in my eyes, v^as his being left without an 
heir. I bemoaned that, as I gazed on the feeble orphan ; and 
I mentally abused old Linton for — ^what was only natural par- 
tiality — the securing his estate to his own daughter, instead of 
his son's. 

An unwelcomed infant it was, poor thing ! It might have 
wailed out of lifij, and nobody cared a m^^-sel during Skom first 



144 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

hoars of existence. We redeemed the neglect afterward; 
but it's beginning was as friendless as its end is likely to be. 

Next morning — bright and cheerful out of doors — stole 
softened in through the blinds of the silent room, and suffused 
the couch and its occupant with a mellow, tender glow. 

Edgar Linton had his head laid on the pillow, and his eyes 
shut. His young and fair featui*es were almost as deathlike as 
those of the form beside him, and almost as fixed ; but his was 
the hush of exhausted anguish, and hers of perfect peace. Her 
brow smooth, her lids closed, her lips wearing the expression of 
a smile. No angel in heaven could be more beautiftil than she 
appeared; and I partook of the infinite calm in which she lay. 
My mind was never in a holier frame than while I gazed on 
that untroubled image of divine rest. I instinctively echoed 
the words she had uttered a few hours before. " Incomparably 
beyond and above us all ! Whether still on earth or now in 
Heaven, her spirit is at home virith God !" 

I don't know if it be ti peculiarity in me, but I am seldom . 
otherwise than happy while watching in the chamber of death, 
should no frenzied or despairing mourner share the duty with 
me. I see a repose that neither earth nor hell can break ; and 
I feel an assurance of the endless and shadowless hereafter — 
the eternity they have entered — where life is boundless in its 
duration, and love in its sympathy, and joy in its fullness. I 
noticed on that occasion how much selfishness there is even in a 
love like Mr. Linton's, when he so regretted Catherine's blessed 
release. 

To be sure, one might have doubted, after the wayward and 
impatient existence she had led, whether she merited a haven 
of peace at last. One might doubt, in seasons of cold reflection, 
but not then, in the presence of her corpse. It asserted its own 
tranquillity, which seemed a pledge of equal quiet to its former 
inhabitant. 

Do you believe such people are happy in the other world, 
sir 1 I'd give a great deal to know. 

I declined answering Mrs. Dean's question, which struck me 
as something heterodox. She proceeded : — 

Retracing the course of Catherine Linton, I fear we have no 
right to think she is ; but we'll leave her with her Maker. 

The master looked asleep, and I ventured soon after sunrise 
to quit the room, and steal out to the pure, refreshing air. The 
iervanti thought me gone to shake off the drowsiness of my 



WUTUERING HEIGHTS. 145 

protracted watcb ; in reality my chief motive was seeing Mr. 
tieathcliff. If he had remained among the larches all night ha 
virould have heard nothing of the stir at the Grange, unless, 
perhaps, he might catch the gallop of the messenger going to 
jrimmerton. If he had come nearer he would probably be 
iware, from the lights flitting to and fro, and the opening and 
Cutting of the outer doors, that all was not right within. 

I wished, yet feared, to find him. I felt the terrible news 
must be told, and I longed to get it over ; but how to do it I did 
not know. 

He was there — at least a few yards ftirther ji the park, lean- 
ing against an old ash-tree, his hat off, and his hair soaked with 
the dew that had gathered on the budded branches, and fell 
patteiing round him. He had been standing a long time in 
that position, for I saw a pair of ousels passing and repassing, 
scarcely three feet from him, busy in building their nest, and 
regarding his proximity no more than that of a piece of tim- 
ber. They flew off at my approach, and he raised his eyes and 
spoke : 

'' She's dead !" he said ; '' IVe not waited iox you to learn 
that. Put your handkerchief away— don't snivel before me. 
Damn you all ! She wants none of yowr tears !" 

I was weeping as much for him as her : we do sometimes 
pity creatures that have none of the feeling either for them- 
selves or others ; and when I first looked into his face I per- 
ceived that he had got inteUigence of the catastrophe ; and a 
foolish notion struck me that his heart was quelled, and ha 
prayed, because his Hps moved, and his gaze was bent on the 
ground. 

*' Yes, she's dead !" I answered, checking my sobs, and dry- 
ing my cheeks. '' Gone to heaven, I hope, where we may every 
one join her if we take due warning, and leave our evil ways to 
follow good." 

'' Did she take due warning, then ?" asked Heathclifi*, attempt- 
ing a sneer. '' Did she die like a saint ? Come, give me a true 
history of the event. How did " 

He endeavored to pronounce the name, but could^not manage 
it ; and, compressing his mouth, he held a silent combat with his 
inward agony, defying, meanwhile, my sympathy with an un- 
flinching, ferocious stare. 

'* How did she die ]" he resumed, at last, fain, notwith- 
standing his hardihood, to have a support behind him, for after 



146 WUTHEKING HEIGHTS. 

the Struggle, he trembled, in spite of himself to bis very finger- 
ends. 

*< Poor wretch !" I thought, ^ you have a heart and nerves, the 
fame as your brother men ! Why should you be so anxious to 
conceal them 1 Year pride can not blind God I You tempt 
Him to wring them, till He forces a cry of humiliation !" 

** Quietly as a lamb !'' I answered, aloud. ** She drew a sigh, 
and stretched herself, like a child reviving, and sinking again to 
sleep ; and five minutes after I felt one little puke at her heart, 
and nothing more." 

** And — and did she ever mention me V* he asked, hesitating, 
as if he dreaded the answer to his question would introduce 
detftila that he could not bear to hear. 

** Her senses never returned — she recognized nobody from 
the time you left her," I said. '* She lies with a sweet smile on 
her face, and her latest ideas wandered back to pleasant early 
days. Her life closed in a g^itle dream — may she wake as 
kindly in the other world !'' 

** May she wake in torment !" he cried, with ftightful vehe- 
mence, stamping his ftK>t, and groaning, in a sudden paroxysm 
of ungovernable pasmon. ** Why, she's a liar to the end ! 
Where is she 1 Not there — ^not iu heaven — ^not perished — 
where 1 Oh, you said you cared nothing for my sufierings ! 
And I pray one prayer — ^I repeat it till my tongue stiflfens— 
Catherine Eamshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living ! 
You said I killed you — ^haunt me then ! The murdered do 
haunt their murderers, I believe ; I know that ghosts have 
wandered on earth. Be with me always — ^take any fi:>rm— drive 
me mad ! only do not leave me in this abyss where I can not 
find you ! Oh, God ! it is unutterable ! I can not live without 
my life ! I can not live without my soul 1" 

He dashed his head against the knotted trunk ; and, lifting up 
his eyes, bowled, not like a man, but like a savage beast getting 
goaded to death with knives and spears. 

I observed several splashes of blood about the bark of the 
tree, and his hand and forehead were both stained ; probably 
the scene I witnessed was a repetition of others acted during the 
night It hardly moved my compassion — ^it appalled me ; still I 
felt reluctant to quit him so. But the moment he recollected 
himself enough to noticQ me watching, he thundered a command 
for me to go, and I obeyed. He was beyond my skill to quie 
or console ! 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 147 

Mrs. Linton's funeral was appointed to take place on the 
Friday following her decease ; and till then her coffin remained 
uncovered, and strewn with flowers and scented leaves, in the 
great drawing-room. Linton spent his days and nights there, a 
sleepless guardian ; and — a circumstance concealed from all 
but me — Heathcliff spent his nights, at least, outside, equally a 
stranger to repcise. 

I held no communication with him ;* still I was conscious of 
his design to enter, if he could ; and on the Tuesday, a little 
after dark, when my master, from sheer fatigue, had been com- 
pelled to retire a couple of hours, I went and opened one of the 
windows, movfed by his perseverance to give him a chance of 
bestowing on the fading image of his idol one final adieu. 

He did not omit to ^vail himself of the opportunity, cautiously 
and briefly ; too cautiously to betray his presence by the slight- 
est noise ; indeed, I shouldn't have discovered that he had been 
th<Jre, except for the disarrangement of the drapery about the 
corpse's face, and for observing on the floor ^a curl of light hair, 
fastened with a silver thread, which, on examination, I ascer- 
tained to have been taken from a locket hung round Catherine's 
neck. Heathcliff had opened the trinket, and cast out its con- 
tents, replacing them by a black lock of his own. I twisted the 
two, and enclosed them together. 

Mr. Eamshaw was, of course, invited to attend the remains 
of his sister to the grave, and he sent no excuse, but he never 
came ; so that besides her husband, the mourners were wholly 
composed of tenants and servants. Isabella was not asked. 

The place of Catherine's interment, to the surprise of the 
villagers, was neither in the chapel under the carved monument 
of the Lintons, nor yet by the tombs of her own relations, out- 
side. It was dug on a green slope, in a comer of the kirkyard, 
where the wall is so low that heath and bilberry plants have 
climbed over it from the moor ; and peat mold almost buries it. 
Her husband lies in the same spot, now ; and they have each a 
simple headstone above, and a plain gray block at thciir feet, to 
mark the graves. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

That Friday made the last of our fine days, for a montn. 
In the evening the weather broke ; the wind shifted from south 
to northeast, and brought rain first, and then sleet and snow. 

On the morrow one could hardly imagine that there had been 
three weeks of summer : the primroses and crocuses were hid- 
den under wintry drifts : the larks were silent, the young leaves 
of the early trees smitten and blackened. — And dreary, and 
chill, and dismal that morrow did creep over ! My master kept 
his room — I took possession of the lonely parlor, converting it 
into a nursery ; and there I was sitting, with the moaning doll 
of a child laid on my knee, rocking it to and fro ; and watching, 
meanwhile, the still driving flakes build up the uncurtained 
window, when the door opened, and some person entered, out 
of breath and laughing ! 

My anger was greater than my astonishment for a minute; I 
supposed it one of the maids, and I cried, 

" Have done ! How dare you show your giddiness here 1 
What would Mr. Linton say if he heard you V* 

" Excuse me !" answered a familiar voice, ** but I know Ed- 
gar is in bed, and I can not stop myself." 

With that, the speaker came forward to the fire, panting and 
holding her hand to her side. 

"I have run the whole way from Wuthering Heights !" she 
continued, after a pause. "Except where I've flown. I 
couldn't count the number of falls I've had. Oh, I'm aching 
all over ! Don't be alarmed— there shall be an explanation as 
soon as I can give it— only just have the goodness to step out, 
and order the can-iage to take me on to Gimmerton, and tell a 
servant to seek up a few clothes in my wardrobe." 

The intruder was Mrs. Heathcliff — she certainly seemed in 
no laughing predicament : her hair streamed on her shoulders, 
dripping witn snow and water ; she was dressed in the girlish 
dress she commonly wore, befitting her age more than her po- 
sition; a low frock, with short sleeves, and nothing on either 
head or neck. The frock was of light silk, and clung to her with 
wet ; and her feet were protected merely by thin slippers ; add 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 149 

to this a deep cut under one ear, which only the cold prevented 
from bleeding profusely, a white face scratched and bruised, and 
a frame hardly able to support itself, through fatigue, and you 
may fancy my first fright was not much allayed when I had 
leisure to examine her. 

" My dear young lady," I exclaimed ; " I'll stir nowhere, and 
hear nothing, till you have removed every article of your clothes, 
and put on dry things ; and certainly you shall not go to Gim- 
merton to-night ; so it is needless to order the carriage." 

" Certainly I shall," she said ; " walking or riding — yet I've 
no objection to dress myself decently ; and — ah, see how it flows 
down my neck now ! the fire does make it smart." 

She insisted on my fulfilling her directions, before she would 
let me touch her; and not till afi:er the coachman had been in- 
structed to get ready, and a maid sent to pack up some neces- 
saiy attire, did I obtain her consent for binding the wound, and 
helping to change her garments. 

*' Now Ellen," she said when my task was finished, and she 
was seated in an easy chair on the hearth, irith a cup of tea be- 
fore her, *' You sit down opposite me, and put poor Catherine's 
baby away — I don't like to see it ! You mustn't think I care 
little for Catherine, because I behaved so foolishly on entering 
— I've cried, too, bitterly — ^yes, more than any one else has 
reason to cry — we parted unreconciled, you remember, and I 
shan't forgive myself. But fi:>r all that I was not going to sym- 
pathize with him — ^the brute beast ! O give me the poker ! this 
IS the last thing of his I have about me>" she slipped the gold 
ring from her third fineer, and threw it on the floor. " I'll 
smash it !" she continued, striking vsdth childish spite. ** And 
then I'll bum it !" and she took and dropped the misused arti- 
cle among the coals. " There ! he shall buy another if he gets 
me back again. He'd be capable of coming to seek me, to 
tease Edgar. I dare not stay, lest that notion should possess 
his wicked head ! And besides, Edgar has not been kind, has 
he 1 And I won't come suing for his assistance ; nor will I 
bring him into more trouble. Necessity compelled me to seek 
shelter here ; though if I had not learned he was out of the way, 
I'd have halted at the kitchen, washed my fiice, warmed myself, 
got you to bring what I wanted, and departed again to any 
where out of the i-each of my accursed— of that incarnate gob- 
lin ! Ah, he was in such a fury — ^if he had caught me ! It's a 
pity Eamshaw is not his match in sti-ength — I wouldn't have 



150 WUTHEEIN6 HBIGHTS. 

ruii till I'd seen him all but demolished, had Hindley been able 
to do it!" 

" Well, don't talk so fast, Miss," I interrapted, " you'll disot- 
der the handkerchief I have tied round your iace, and make the 
cut bleed again. Drink your tea, and take breath, and give 
over laughing. Laughter is sadly out of place under this roof, 
and in your condition !" 

" An undeniable truth," she replied, " List^i to that clhlt. ! it 
maintains a constant wail — send it out of my hearing, for an 
hour ; I shan't stay any longer." 

I rang the bell, and committed it to a serrant's care ; and 
then I inquired what had urged her to escape from Wuthering 
Hdghts in such an unlikely plight — and where she meant to go, 
as she refused remaining with us. 

" I ought, and I wish to remain," answered she ; " to cheer 
Edgar, and take care of the baby, for two things, and because 
the Grange is my right home — ^but I tell you, he wouldn't let 
me 1 Do you think he could bear to see me grow fat, and 
merry ; and could bear to think that we were tranquil, and not 
resolve on poisoning our comfort ? Now I have the satis&ction 
of being sure that he detesta me to to the point of its annoying 
him senously to have me within ear-shot or eye-sight. I notice 
when I enter his presence, the muscles of his countenance are 
involuntarily distorted into an expression of hatred ; partly aris- 
ing from his knowledge of the good causes I have to feel that 
sentiment for him, and partly from ori^nal aversion. It is strong 
enough to make me feel pretty certain that he would not chase 
me over England, supposing I contrived a clear escape; and 
therefore I must get quite away. I've recovered from my first 
desire to be killed by him : I'd rather he'd kill himself! He 
has extinguished my love effectually, and so I'm at my ease. I 
can recollect yet how I loved him ; and can dimly imagine that 
I could still be loving him, if— no, no ! Even, if he had doted 
on me, the devilish nature would have revealed its existence 
somehow. Catherine had an awfiilly perverted taste to esteem 
him so dearly, knowing him so well. Monster ! would that he 
could be blotted out of creation, and out of my memory !" 

" Hush, hush ! he's a human being," I said. ** Be more 
charitable; there are worse men than he is, yet!" 

" He's not a human being," she retorted ; " and he has no 
claim on my charity. I gave him my heart, and he took and 
pinched it to death ; and flung it back to me— people feel with 



WUTHERfNO HEIGHTS. 151 

dieir hearts, Ellen — and since he has destroyed mine, I hare 
not power to feel f<^ him ; and I would not, though he groaned 
from this to his dying day ; and wept teara of hlood for Cathe* 
rine ! Nq, indeed, indeed, I wouldn't!" And here Isabella be- 
gan to cry ; but, immediately dashing the water from her lashes, 
she reconamenced. 

'*You asked what has driven me to flight at lastt I was 
compelled to attempt it, because I had 8uc<^eded in rousing his 
rage a pitch above his malignly. Pulling out the nerves with 
red hot pincers requires more coolness than knocking on the 
head. He was worked up to forget the fiendish prudence he 
boasted o( and proceeded to murdetous violence. I experi- 
enced pleasure in being able to exasperate him: the sense nf 
pleasure woke my instinct of self-preservation ; so I feirly broke 
free, and if ever I come into his h€uids again he is welcome to 
a signal revenge. 

** Yesterday, you know, Mr. Eamshaw should have been at 
the funeral. He kept himself sober for the purpose — tolerably 
sober; not going to bed mad at six o'clock, and getting up 
drunk at twelve. Consequently he rose, in suicidal low ^nrits ; 
as fit ioT the church as fi>r a dance; and instead, he sat down 
by the fire and swallowed gin or brandy by tumblerfiils. 

*' Heathcliff — ^I Judder to name Mm ! has been a stranger in 
the house from last Sunday till to-day. Whether the angels 
have fed him, or his kin beneath, I can not tell ; but he has not 
eaten a meal with us for nearly a week. H<e had just come 
home at dawn, and gone upstairs to hb chamber ; locking him- 
self in — as if any body dreamed of coveting his company ! There 
he continued, praying like a Methodist ; only the deify he im- 
plored is senseless dust and ashes ; and God, v4)en addressed, 
was curiously confounded with lus own black father! After 
concluding these precious orisons — and they lasted generally till 
he grew hoarse, and his voice was stranglsd in his throat — ^he 
would be off again ; always straight down to the Grange I I 
wonder Edgar did not send for a constable, and ^ve him into 
custody 1 For me, grieved as I was about Catherine, it was im- 
possible to avoid regarding this season of deliverance horn de- 
grading oppression as a holiday. 

** I recovered spirits sufficient to hear Joseph's eternal lectures 
without weeping; and to move up and down the house less 
with the foot of a fiightened thief than formerly. You wouldn't 
think that I should cry at any thing Joseph could say, but he 



152 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

and Hareton are detestable companions. I'd rather sit with 
Hindley, and hear his awful talk, than with * t* little maister/ 
and his staunch supporter, that odious old man ! 

" When Heathclin is in, I'm often obliged to seek the kitchen 
and their society, or starve among the damp, uninhabited cham- 
bers ; when he is not, as was the case this week, I establish a 
table and chair, at one comer of the house-fire, and never mind 
how Mr. Eamshaw may occupy himself; and he does not inter- 
fere with my arrangements : he is quieter now than he used to 
be, if no one provokes him ; more sullen and depressed, and less 
furious. Joseph affirms he's sure he's an altered man ; that the 
Lord has touched his heart, and he is saved ' so as by fh*e.' I'm 
puzzled to detect signs of the favorable change, but it is not my 
business. 

** Yester-evening, I sat in my nook, reading some old books, 
till late on toward twelve. It seemed so dismal to go up-stairs, 
with the wild snow blowing outside, and my thoughts contin- 
ually reverting to the kirkyard, and the new made grave ! I 
dar^ hardly lift my eyes from the page before me, that melan- 
choly scene so instantly usurped its place. 

" Hindley sat opposite, his head leaned on his hand, perhaps 
meditating on the same subject. He had ceased drinking at a 
point below irrationality, and had neither stirred nor spoken 
during two or three hours. There was no sound through the 
house, but the moaning vnnd which shook the windows every 
now and then ; the faint crackling of the coals ; and the click 
of my snufters as I removed at intervals the long wick of the 
candle. Hareton and Joseph were probably fast asleep in bed. 
It was very, very sad, and while I read I sighed, for it seemed 
as if all joy had vanished from the world, never to be restored. 

The doleful silence was broken, at length, by the sound of 
the kitchen latch. Heathcliff had returned from his watch 
earlier than usual, owing, I suppose, to the sudden storm. 

'' That entrance was fastened ; and we heard him coming 
•round to get in by the other. I rose with an irrepressible ex- 
pression of what I felt on my lips, which induced my companion, 
who had been staring toward the door, to turn and look at me. 

" I'll keep him out five minutes," he exclaimed ; " you won't 
object]" 

" No, you may keep him out the whole night, for me," I an- 
swered. " Do ! put the key in the lock, and draw the bolts." 

Eamshaw accomplished this ere his g^est reached the frx>nt ; 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 153 

he then came and brought his chair to the other side of my table ; 
leaning over it, and searching in my eyes a sympathy with the 
burning hate that gleamed from his : as he both looked and felt 
like an assassin, he couldn't exactly find that ; but he discovered 
enough to encourage him to speak. 

" * You, and I,' he said, * have each a great debt to settle with 
the man out yonder ! If we were neither of us cowards we 
might combine to discharge it Are you as soft as your brother ] 
Are you willing to endure to the last, and not once attempt a 
repayment V 

" * I'm weary of enduring now ;' I replied, * and I'd be glad 
of a retaliation that, wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery 
and violence are spears pointed at both ends — they wound those 
who resort to them worse than their enemies.' 

" * Treachery and violence are a Just return for treachery and 
violence i' cried Hindley. * Mrs. HeathcliflT, I'll ask you to do 
nothing but sit still and be dumb. Tell me now, can you 1 I'm 
sure you would have as much pleasure as I in witnessing the 
conclusion of the fiend's existence. He'll be your death unless 
you overreach him — and he'll be my ruin. Damn the hellish 
villain ! He knocks at the door as if he were master here al- 
ready ! Promise to hold your tongue, and before that clock 
strikes — ^it wants three minutes of one — ^you're a ft-ee woman I' 

" He took the implements which I described to you in my 
letter fi-om his breast, and would have turned down the candle 
I snatched it away, however, and seized his arm. 

" * I'll not hold my tongue 1' I said. * You mustn't touch him. 
Let the door remain shut, and be quiet !' 

" * No 1 I've formed my resolution, and by God I'll execute 
it !' cried the desperate being ; ' I'll do you a kindness, in spite 
of yourself, and Hareton justice ! And you needn't trouble your 
head to screen me. Catherine is gone— nobody alive would re- 
gret me, or be ashamed though I cut my throat this minute — 
and it's time to make an end !' 

" I might as well have struggled with a bear, or reasoned with 
a lunatic. The only resource left me was to run to a lattice, 
and warn his intended victim of the fate which awaited him. 

" * You'd better seek shelter somewhere else to-night !* I ex- 
claimed in a rather triumphant tone. ' Mr. Eamshaw has h 
mind to shoot you, if you persist in endeavoring to enter.' 

" * You'd better open the door, you ,' he answered, ad- 
dressing me by some elegant term that 1 don't care to repeat 



154 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS: 

" * I shall not meddle in the matter,' I retorted again. * Come 
in and get shot, if you please. IVe done my duty/ 

'* With that I shut the window, and returned to my place by 
the fire, having too small a stock of hypocrisy at my command 
to pretend any anxiety for the danger that menaced him. 

" Eamsh^w swore passionately at me, affirming that I loved 
the villain yet, and calling me all sorts of names for the base 
spirit I evincei And I, in my secret heart (and conscience never 
reproached me), thought what a blessing it would be for him 
should Heathcliff put him out of misery, and what a blessing for 
me should he send HeatbclifT to his right abode ! As I sat 
nursing these reflections, the casement behind me was banged 
upon the floor by a blow from the latter individual, and his 
black countenance looked bligfatingly through. The stanchions 
stood too close to suffer his shoulders to follow, and I smiled, 
exulting in my fancied security. His hair and clothes were 
whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth, revealed by 
cold and wrath, gleamed through the dark. 

" ' Isabella, let me in, or I'll make you repent f he * gimed,' 
as Joseph calls it 

« ' I can not commit murder 1' I replied. ' Mr. Hindley stands 
sentinel, with a knife and loaded pistoL' 

" * Let me in by the kitchen door,' he said. 

** * Hindley will be there before- me,' I answered. * And that's 
a poor love of yours, that can not bear a shower of snow ! We 
were lefl at peace in our beds as long as the summer moon 
shone, but the moment a blast of winter returns you must run 
for shelter ! Heathcliff, if I were you I'd go stretch myself over 
her grave, and die like a faithful dog. The world is surely not 
worth living in now, is it ? You had distinctly impressed on me 
the idea that Catherine was the whole joy of your life. I can't 
imagine how you think of surviving her loss.' 

** * He's there, is he ]' exclaimed my companion, iTishing to the 
gap. * If I can get my arm out I can hit him.' 

" I'm afraid, Ellen, you'll set me down as really wicked ; but 
you don't know all, so don't judge. I wouldn't have aided or 
abetted an attempt on even his life, for any thing. Wish that 
he were dead I must ; and therefore I was fearfully disappointed, 
and unnerved by terror for the consequences of my taunting 
speech, when he flung himself on Eamshaw's weapon and 
wrenched it from his grasp. The charge exploded, and the 
knife, in springing back, closed into its owner's wi-ist. Heath« 



WUTHBRINO HEiaHTS.I 155 

diff pulled it away bj main force, slitting up the flesh as it pass- 
ed on, and thrust it dripping into, his pocket. He then took a 
stone, struck down the division between two windows, and 
sprung in. His adversanr had fallen senseless with excessive 
pain, and the flow of blood that gushed from an artery or a large 
vein. 

« The ruffian kicke'4 and trampled on him, and dashed his 
head repeatedly against the flags, holding me with one hand, 
meantime, to prevent me summoning Joseph. He exerted pre- 
terhuman self<lenial in abstaining from finishing him completely; 
but, getting^out of breath, he finally desisted, and dragged the 
apparently inanimate body to the settle. There he tore off the 
sleeve of Eamshaw's coat, and bound up the wound with brutal 
rdughness, spitting and cursing during tne operation as energeti- 
cally as he had kicked before. Being at liberty, I lost no time 
in seeking the old servant, who, having gathered by degrees the 
purport of my hasty tale, hurried below, gasping, asiie descended 
the steps, two at once. 

" * Whet is thur tub do, nah t whet is thur tub do, nab V 

"'There's this to do,' thundered Heathcliff, *that your mas- 
ter's mad, and, should he last another month, I'll have him to an 
asylum. And how the devil did you come to fa^en me out, you 
toothless hound ? Don't stand muttering and mumbling diere. 
Come, I'm not going to nurse him. Wash that stuff away — and 
mind the sparks of your candle— it is more than half brandy !' 

" Und soa, yah been murthering on him V exclaimed Joseph, 
lifl^ing his hands and eyes in horror. ' If iver aw seed a seeght 
loike this ! May the Lord — ' 

" Heathcliff gave him a push upon his knees, in the middle 
of the bloody and flung a towel to him ; but instead of proceed- 
ing to dry it up, he joined his hands, and began a prayer which 
excited my laughter from its odd phraseology. I was in the 
condition of mind to be shocked at nothing ; in fact, I was as 
reckless as some male&ctors show themselves at the foot of the 
gallows. 

**'Oh, I forgot you,* said the tyrant, *you shall do that 
Down with you. And you conspire with him against me, do 
you, viper ] There, that is work fit for you !' 

" He shook me till my teeth rattled, and pitched me beside 
Joseph, who steadily concluded his supplications, and then rose, 
vowing he would set off for the Grange directly. Mr. Linton 
was a magbtrate, and though he had fifty wives dead, he should 



156 WUTHBRINtt HEIGHTS. 

inquire into this. He was so obstinate in bis resolution tbat 
Heatbcliff deemed it expedient to compel fi'om my lips a re- 
capitulation of wbat bad taken place ; standing over me, beav- 
ing with malevolence, as I reluctantly delivered tbe account in 
answer to bis questions. It required a great deal of labor to 
satisfy tbe old man tbat be was not tbe aggressor ; especially 
witb my bardly-wrung replies. However, Mr. Eamsbaw soon 
convinced bim tbat be was alive still ; be hastened to administer 
a dose of spiiits, and by tbeir succor bis master presently regain- 
ed motion and consciousness. Heatbcliff, aware tbat be was 
ignoi-ant of tbe treatment received wbile insensible, called bim 
deliriously intoxicated ; and said be should not notice bis^ atro- 
cious conduct further ; but advised bim to get to bed. To my 
joy, be left us after giving this judicious counsel, and Hindley 
stretched himself on tbe hearth- stone. I departed to my own 
room, marveling tbat I bad escaped so easily. 

** This morning, when I came down, about half an hour before 
noon, Mr. Eamsbaw was sitting by tbe fire, deadly sick ; his 
evil genius, almost as gaunt and ghastly, leaned against the chim- 
ney. Neither' appeared inclined to dine; and having waited 
till all was cold on tbe table, I commenced alone. Nothing 
hindered me from eating beaitily ; and I experienced a certain 
sense of satisfaction and superiority, as, at intervals, I cast u 
look toward my silent companions, and felt the comfort of a 
quiet conscience within me. 

"After I had done, I ventured on the unusual liberty of 
drawing near the fire ; going round Eamsbaw's seat, and 
kneeling in the corner beside him. Hoathcliff did not glance 
my way, and I gazed up, and contemplated his features, almost 
as confidently as if they had been turned to stone. His fore- 
bead, that I once thought so manly, and that I now think so 
diabolical, was shaded with a heavy cloud ; his basilisk eyes 
were nearly quenched by sleeplessness — and weeping, perhaps, 
for the lashes were wet then ; bis lips devoid of tbeir rerocious 
sneer, and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness. Had 
it been another, I would have covered my face, in the presence 
of such grief. In 7iis case, I was gratified : and ignoble as it 
seems to insult a fallen enemy, I couldn't miss this chance of 
sticking in a dart ; bis weakness was the only time when I could 
taste the delight of paying wrong for wrong. 

" Fie, fie. Miss !" I interrupted. " One might suppose you 
had never opened a Bible in your life. If God afflict your 



WUTHERINe HEIGHTS. 157 

enemies, surely that ought to suffice you. It is both mean and 
presumptuous to add your torture to his !'' 

*' In general, I'll allow that it would be, EUen,'' she continued 
^ But what misery laid on Heathcliff could content me, unless 
I have a hand in it ] I'd rather he suffered less, if I might 
cause his sufferings, and he might kfww that I was the cause. 
Ctti, I owe him so much. On only one condition can I hope to 
forgive him. It is, if I may take an eye for an eye, a tooth for 
a tooth, for every v^rench of agony, return a wrench, reduce 
him to my level. As he was the first to injure, make him the 
first to implore pardon ; and then— why then, Ellen, I might 
show you some generosity. But it is utterly impossible I 
can ever be revenged, and therefore I can not forgive him. 
Hindley wanted some water, and I handed him a glass, and 
asked him how he was." 

" * Not as ill as I wish,' he replied. * But leaving out my 
arm, every inch of me is as sore as if I had been fighting with a 
legion of imps!' 

" ' Yes, no wonder,' was my next remark. * C atherine used to 
boast that she stood between you and bodily harm — she meant 
that certain persons would not hurt you, fi)r fear of offending 
her. It's well people don't really rise from the grave, or, last 
night, she might have witnessed a repulsive scene ! Are not 
you bruised and cut over your chest and shoulders V 

" * I can't say,' he answered ; * but what do you mean 1 
Did he dare to strike me when I was down V 

" * He trampled on, and kicked you, and dashed you on the 
ground,' I whispered. 'And his mouth watered to tear you 
with his teeth ; because, he's only half a man — ^not so much.' 

" Mr. Eamshaw looked up, like me, to the countenance of 
our mutual foe; who, absorbed in his anguish, seemed in- 
sensible to any thing around him; the longer he stood, the 
plainer his reflections revealed their blackness through his 
features. 

" * Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle him in 
my last agony, I'd go to hell with joy,' gi-oaned the impatient 
man, writhing to rise, and sinking back im despair, convinced of 
his inadequacy for the struggle. 

" * Nay, it's enough that he has murdered one of you,' I ob- 
served aloud. * At the Grange, every one knows your sister 
would have been living now had it not been for Mr. Heathcli£f! 
After all, it is preferable to be hated than loved by him. When 



168 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHT &• 

I recollect how happy we were — ^how happy Catherine was be- 
fore he came — I'm fit to curse the day.' 

" Most likely, Heathcliff noticed more the truth of what was 
said, than the spirit of the person who said it. His attention 
was roused, I saw, for his eyes rained down tears among the 
ashes, and he drew his breath in suffocating sighs. I stared full 
at him, and laughed scornfully. The clouded windows of hell 
flashed a moment toward me ; the fiend which usually looked 
out, however, was so dimmed and drowned that I did not fear 
to hazai'd another sound of derision. 

" * Gret up, and begone out oi my sight,' said the mourner. 

** I guessed he uttered those words, at least, though his voice 
was hardly intelligible. 

" * 1 beg your pardon,' I replied. * But I loved Catherine 
too ; and her brother requires attendance which, for her sake, I 
shall supply. Now that she's dead, I see h«* in Hindley. Hind- 
ley has exactly her eyes, if you had not tried to gouge them out, 
and made them black and red, and her — ' 

" * Gret up, wretched idiot, before I stamp you to death !' he 
cried, making a movement that caused me to make one also. 

" * But then,' I continued, holding myself ready to flee ; * if 
poor Catherine had trusted you, and assumed the ridiculous, 
contemptible, degrading title of Mrs. Heathcliff, she would soon 
have presented a similar picture ! She wouldn't have borne 
your abominable behavior quietly ; her detestation and disgust 
must have found voice. 

** The back of the settle, and Eamshaw's person interposed 
between me and him ; so, instead of endeavoring to reach me, 
he snatched a dinner knife fi'om the table, and flung it at my 
head. It struck beneath my ear, and stopped the sentence 1 
was uttering; but pulling it out, I sprang to the door, and 
delivered another which I hope went a httle deeper than his 
missile. 

" The last glimpse I caught of him was a furious rush, on his 
part, checked by the embrace of his host ; and both fell locked 
together on the hearth. In my flight through the kitchen I bid 
Joseph speed to his master ; I knocked over Hareton, who was 
hangmg a litter of puppies from a chair-back in the doorway ; 
and, blest as a soul escaped from purgatory, I bounded, leaped, 
and flew down the steep road : then, quitting its windings, shot 
direct across the moor, rolling over banks, and wjuling throu^ 
marahes; precipitating myself, in fiu^t, toward the beacon light 



WUTUER'ING HEIGHTS. 159 

of the Grange. And far rather would I be coDdemned to a 
perpetual dwelling in the infernal regions, than even for one 
night abide beneath the roof of Wuthering Height again." 

Isabella ceased speaking, and took a drink of tea ; then she 
rose, and bidding me put 6n her IxHmet, and a great shawl I 
had brought, and turning a deaf ear to my entreaties for her to 
remain another hour, she stepped upon a chair, kissed Edgar's 
and Catherine's portraits, bestowed a similar salute on me, and 
descended to the caniage, accompanied by Fanny, who yelped 
wild with joy at recovering her mistress. She was driven away, 
never to revisit this neighborhood; but a regular correspondence 
was established between her and my master, when things were 
more settled. 

I believe her new abode was in the south, near London; there 
she had a son bom, a few months subsequent to her escape. He 
was christened Linton, and, from the first, she reported him to 
be an ailing, peevish creature. Mr. HeathcHfi*, meeting me one 
day in the village, inquired where she lived. I refused to tell. 
He remarked that it was not of any moment, only she must be- 
ware of coming to her brother ; she should not he with him, if 
he had to keep her himself. 

Though I would give no information, he discovered, through 
some of the other servants, both her place of residence, and the 
existence of the child. Still he didn't molest her; fof which 
forbearance she might thank his aversion, I suppose. He often 
asked about the i^ant when he saw me ; and on hearing its 
name, smiled grimly, and observed : 

" They wish me to hate it too, do they 1" 

" I don't think they wish you to know any thing about it," I 
answered. 

"But I'll have it," he said, "when I want it. They may 
reckon on that !" 

Fortunately, its mother died before the time arrived, some 
thirteen years after the decease of Catherine, when Linton was 
twelve, or a little more. 

On the day succeeding Isabella's unexpected visit, I had no 
opportunity of speaking to my master : he shunned conversation, 
and was fit fi>r discussing nothing. When I could get him to 
listen, I saw it pleased him that his sister had left her husband, 
whom he abhorred with an intensity which the mildness of his 
nature would scarcely seem to allow. So deep and sensitive 
was his aversion, diat he refi^ned from going any where where 



J60 WUTHE&IN6 HEIGHTS. 

he was likely to see or hear of Heathcliff. Grief and that to- 
gether transformed him into a complete hermit : he threw up 
his ofEce of magistrate, ceased even to attend church, avoided 
the village on all occasions, and spent a life of entire seclusion 
vnthin the limits of his park and grounds : only varied by soli- 
tary rambles on the moors, and .visits to the grave of his wife, 
mostly at evening, or early morning, before other wanderers 
were abroad. 

But he was too good to be thoroughly unhappy long. He 
didn't pray for Catherine's soul to haunt him. Time brought 
resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy. He 
recalled her memory vnth ardent, tender love, and hopeful 
aspiring to the better world, where, he doubted not she was gone. 

And he had earthly consolation and affections also. For a 
few days, I said, he seemed regardless of the puny successor to 
the departed : that coldness melted as fast as snow in April, 
and ere the tiny thing could stammer a word or totter a step, it 
wielded a despot's scepter in his heart. It was named Cath- 
erine, but he never caUed it the name in full, as he had never 
called the first Catherine short, probably because Heathcliff 
had a habit of doing so. The little one was always Cathy, it 
formed to him a distinction from the mother, and yet, a con- 
nection with her ; and his attachment sprang from its relation to 
her, far more than from its being his own. 

I used to draw a comparison between him and Hindley 
Eamshaw, and perplex myself to explain satisfactorily why 
their conduct was so opposite in similar circumstances. They 
had both been fond husbands, and were both attached to their 
children; and I could not see how they shouldn't both have 
taken the same road, for good or evil. But, I thought in my 
mind, Hindley with apparently the stronger head, has shown 
himself sadly the worse- and the weaker man. When his ship 
struck, the captain abandoned his post ; and the crew, instead 
of trying to save her, rushed into riot and confusion, leaving no 
hope for their luckless vessel. Linton, on the contrary, dis- 
played the true courage of a loyal and faithfril soul : he trusted 
God — and God comforted him. One hoped, and t]^^ other 
despaired : they chose their own lots, and were righteously 
doomed to endure them. — 

But you'll not want to hear my moralizing, Mr. Lockwood : 
you'll judge as well as I can, all these things; at least, you'll 
think you will, and that's the same. — 



WUTUERING HEIGHTS. 16. 

The end of Eamshaw was what might have been expected . 
It followed fast on his sister's; there was scarcely six months 
between them. We, at the Grange, never got a very succinct 
account of his state preceding it ; all that I did learn, was on 
occasion of going to aid in the preparations for the funeral. Mr. 
Kenneth came to announce the event to my master. 

" Well, Nelly," said he, riding inlo the yard one morning, too 
early not to alarm me with an instant presentiment of bad news. 
" It's your and my turn to go into mourning at present. Who's 
given us the slip now, do you think ]" 

" Who ]" I asked in a flurry. 

"Why, guess!" he returned, dismounting, and slingping his 
bridle on a hook by the door. " And nip up the comer of your 
apron ; I'm certain you'll need it." 

" Not Mr. Heathcliff, surely 1 I exclaimed." 

" What ! would you have teara for him 1" said the doctor. 
No, Heathcliff's a tough young fellow ; he looks blooming to- 
day — I've just seen him. He's rapidly regaining flesh since he 
lost his better half. 

" Who is it then, Mr. Kenneth 1" I repeated impatiently. 

" Hindley Eamshaw ! Your old fi-iend Hindley," he replied. 
** And my wicked gossip ; though he's been too vdld for me this 
long whUe. There ! I said we should draw water. But cheer 
up ! He died true to his character, drunk as a lord. Poor 
laid. I'm sorry too. One can't help missing an old companion ; 
though he had the worst tricks with him that ever man imagined; 
and has done me many a rascally turn. He's barely twenty- 
seven, it seems ; that's your own age ; who would have thought 
you were bom in one year 1" 

I confess this blow was greater to me than the shock of Mrs. 
Linton's death : ancient associations lingered round my heart ; 
I sat down in the porch, and wept as for a blood relation, 
desiring Kenneth to get another servant to introduce him to the 
master. I could not hinder myself from pondering on the 
question — " Had he had fair play ]" Whatever I did, that 
idea would bother me : it was so tiresomely pertinacious that I 
resolved on requesting leave to go to Wuthering Heights, and 
assist in the last duties to the dead. Mr. Linton was extremely 
reluctant to consent, but I pleaded eloquently for the friendless 
condition in which he lay ; and I said my old master and foster 
brother had a claim on my services as strong as his ovm. Be- 
sides, I reminded him that the child, Hareton, was his wife's 



162 WUTHBRING HEIGilTS. 

nephew ; and, in the absence of nearer kin, he ought to act as 
its guardian ; and he ought to and must inquire how the prop- 
erty was left, and look over the concerns of his brother-in-law. 

He was unfit for attending to such matters then, but he bid 
me speak to his lawyer; and at length permitted me to go 
His lawyer had been Eamshaw's also : I called at the village, 
and asked him to accompany me. He shook his head, and 
advised that Heathclifif should be let alone ; affirming, if the 
truth were known, Hareton would be found little else than a 



lis father died in deb^ ;" he said, " the whole property is 
mortgaged, and the sole chance for the natural heir is to allow 
him an opportunity of creating some interest in the creditor's 
heart, that he may be inclined to deal leniently toward him." 

When I reached the Heights, I explained that I had come to 
see every thing carried on decently, and Joseph, who appeared 
in sufficient distress, expressed satisfaction at my presence. 
Mr. Heathcliff said he did not perceive that I was wanted, but 
I might stay and order the an-angements for the funeral, if I 
chose. 

** Correctly," he remarked, " that fool's body should be buried 
at the cross-roads, without ceremony of any kind. I happened 
to leave him ten minutes, yesterday afternoon, and, in that in- 
terval, he fastened the two doors of the house against me, and 
he has spent the night in drinking himself to death deliberately ! 
We broke in this morning, for we heard him snorting like a 
horse; and there he was, laid over the settle — ^flaying and 
scalping would not have wakened him. I sent for Kenneth, 
and he came ; but not till the beast had changed into carrion^^ 
he was both dead, and cold, and stark ; and so you'll allow, it 
was useless making more stir about him !" 

The old servant confirmed this statement, but muttered, 

"Awd rather he'd goan hisseln fur t'doctor! Aw sud uh 
taen tent uh t'maister better nur him — ^un he wam't deead when 
aw lefl, nowt uh t'soart !" 

I insisted on the funeral being respectable. Mr. Heathcliff 
said I might have my own way t£ere, too ; only, he desired me 
to remember, that the money for the whole aifair came out of 
his pocket. 

He maintained a hard, careless deportment, indicative of 
neither joy nor sorrow ; if any thing, it expressed a ffinty grat- 
ification at a piece o£ difficult work, successfully executed. I 



WUTHERIN6 HEIOHTS. 103 

Dbserved once, indeed, something like exultation in his aspect 
It was just when the people were bearing the cofEn from the 
house ; he had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner ; and pre- 
Tious to following with Hareton he lifted the unfortunate child 
upon the table, and muttered with peculiar gusto, 

** Nqw my bodny lad you are mine ! And we'll see if one 
tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to 
twist it!" 

The unsuspecting thing was pleased at this ^eech ; he played 
with Heathcliff's whiskers, and stroked his cheek, but I divined 
its meaning, and observed tartly, 

" That boy must go back with me to Thrushcross Grange, sir. 
There is nothing in the world less yours than he is !" 

" Does Linton say so ]" he demanded. 

" Of course — he has ordered me to take him," I replied. 

"Well," said the scoimdrel, "we'll not argue the subject now ; 
but I have a fancy to try my hand at rearing a young one ; so 
intimate to your master, that I must supply the place of this 
with my own, if he attempt to remove it ; I don't engage to let 
Hai'eton go, undisputed ; but I'll be pretty sure to make the 
other come ! remember to teU him." 

This hint was enough to bind our hands. I repeated its sub- 
stance, on my return, and Edgar Linton, little interested at the 
commencement, spoke no more of interfering. I'm not aware 
that he could have done it to any purpose had he been ever so 
willing. 

The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights: he 
held firm possession, and proved to the attorney, who, in his 
Uim, proved it to Mr. Linton, that Eamshaw had mortgaged 
every yard of land he owned for cash to supply his mania for 
gaming : and he, Heathcliff, was the mortgagee. 

In that manner, Hareton, who should now be the first gentle- 
man in the neighborhood, was reduced to a state of complete 
dependence on his father's inveterate enemy ; and lives in his 
own house as a servant, deprived of the advantage of wages, and 
quite unable to right himself, because of his fiiendlessness, and 
his ignorance that he has been vTronged. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The twelve years, — continued Mrs. Dean, — ^following that 
dismal period, were the happiest of my life : my greatest 
troubles, in their passage, rose from our little lady's trifling ill- 
nesses, which she had to experience in common with all chil- 
dren, rich and poor. 

For the rest, after the first six months, she grew like a larch ; 
and could walk and talk too, in her own way, before the heath 
blossomed a second time over Mrs. Linton's dust. She was 
the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a deso- 
late house — a real beauty in face — with the Eamshaws' hand- 
some dark eyes, but the Lin tons' fair skin, and small features, 
and yellow curling hair. Her spirit was high, though not rough, 
and qualified by a heart sensitive and lively to excess in its af- 
fections. That capacity for intense attachments reminded me 
of her mother ; still she did not resemble her ; for she could be 
soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice, and pensive 
expression : her anger was never furious ; her love never fierce ; 
it was deep and tender. 

However, it must be acknowledged, she had faults to foil her 
gifts. A propensity to be saucy was one ; and a perverse will 
that indulged children invariably acquire, whether they be good 
tempered or cross. If a servant chanced to vex her, it was al- 
ways, " I shall tell papa !" And if he reproved her, even by a 
look, you would have thpught it a heart-breaking business ; I 
don't believe he ever did speak a harsh word to her. 

He took her education entirely on himself, and made it an 
amusement; fortunately, curiosity and a quick intellect urged 
her into an apt scholar ; she learned rapidly and eagerly, and did 
honor to his teaching. Till she reached the age of thirteen, she 
had not once been beyond the range of the park by hersel£ 
Mr. Linton would take her with him, a mile or so outside, on 
rare occasions ; but he trusted her to no one else. Gimmerton 
was an unsubstantial name in her ears ; the chapel the only 
building she had approached or entered, except her own home ; 
Wuthering Heights and Mr. Heathcliff did not exist for her ; 
•he was a perfect recluse, and, apparently, perfectly contented. 



WUTBERIN6 HEIGHTS. 165 

Sometimes, indeed, while surveying the country from her nurs- 
ery window, she would observe — 

" Ellen, how long will it be before I can walk to the top of 
those hills 1 I wonder what lies on the other side— is it the 
sea V* 

" No, Miss Cathy," I would answer, "it is hills again, just 
like these." 

"And what are those golden rocks like, when you stand 
under them ]" she once asked. 

The abrupt descent of Penistoiie Crags particularly attracted 
her notice, especially when the setting sun shone on it, and the 
topmodt heights ; and the whole extent of landscape besides 
lay in shadow. I explained that they were bare masses of 
stone, with hardly enough earth in their clefbs to nourish a stunt- 
ed tree. * 

" And why are they bright so long after it is evening here ]" 
she pursued. 

" because they are a great deal higher up than we are," re- 
phed I; "you could not cHmb them — they are too high and 
steep. In winter the fi'ost is always there before it comes to us ; 
and, deep into summer, I have found snow under that black hol- 
low on the northeast side." 

" Oh, you have been on them !" she cried, gleefully. " Then 
I can go, too, when I am a woman. Has papa been, Ellen V* 

" Papa would tell you, miss," I answered, hastily, " that they 
are not worth the trouble of visiting. The moors, where you 
ramble with him, are much nicer ; and Thrushcross park is the 
finest place in the world." 

" But I know the park, and I don't know those," she mur- 
mured to herself. "And I should delight to look i*ound me, 
from the brow of that tallest point. My little pony, Minny, shall 
take me some time." 

One of the maids mentioning the fairy cave, quite turned 
her head with a desire to fulfill this project ; she teased Mr. 
Linton about it, and he promised she should have the journey 
when she got older ; but Miss Catherine measured her age by 
months, and — 

" Now, am I old enough to go to Penistone Crags 1" was the 
constant question in her mouth. 

The road thither wound close by Wuthering Heights^ Ed- 
gar had not the heart to paas it ; so she received as constantly/ 
-he answer — 



166 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

" Not yet, love, not yet." 

I said Mrs. Heathcliff lived about a dozen years after quitting 
her husband. Her &mily were ci a delicate constitution ; she 
and Edgar both lacked the ruddy health that you will generally 
meet in these paits. Wliat her last illness was, I am not cer- 
tain ; I conjecture they died of the same thing, a kind of fever, 
slow at its commencement, but incurable, and rapidly consuming 
life toward the close. 

She wrote to inform her brother of the probable conclusion 
of a four months' indispositicm under which she had suffered ; 
and entreated him to come to her, if possible, for she had much 
to settle, and she wished to bid him adieu, and deliver Linton 
safely into her bands. Her hope was, that Linton might be left ' 
with him, as he had been with her ; his father, she would fain 
convince herself, had no desire to aissume the burden of his 
maintenance or education. 

My master hesitated not a moment in complying with her re- 
quest ; reluctant as he was to leave home at ordinary calU, he 
new to answer this ; commending Catherine to my peculiar vig- 
ilance in his absence, with reiterated orders that she must not 
wander out of the park, even under my escort ; he did not cal- 
culate on her going unaccompanied. 

He was away three weeks. The first day or two my charge 
sat in a comer of the library, too sad £or either reading or play- 
ing ; in that quiet state she caused me little trouble ; but it was 
succeeded by an interval of impatient, &etful weariness : and, 
being too busy and too old then to run up and down amusing 
her, I hit on a method by which she might enteitain hei*self. 

I used to send her on her travels round the grounds — now on 
foot, and now on a pony ; indulging her with a patient audience 
of all her real and imaginary adventures, when she re- 
turned. 

The summer shone in ftill prime ; and she took such a taste 
fer this solitary rambling that she often contrived to remain out 
ft'om breakfast till tea ; and then the evenings were spent in 
recounting her fanciful tales. I did not fear her breaking 
bounds, because the gates were generally locked, and I thought 
she would scarcely venture forth alone, if they had stood wide 
open. Unluckily, my confidence proved misplaced. Catherine 
came to me, one morning at eight o'clock, and said she was 
that day an Arabian merchant, going to cross the desert with 
his caravan ; and I must give her plenty of provisions for her- 



WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 167 

self and beasts, a horse, and three cameb, personated by a 
large hound and a couple of pointers. 

I got together good store of dainties, and slung them in a 
basket on one side of the saddle ; and she sprang up as gay as 
a fairy, sheltered by her wide-brimmed hat and gauze veil from 
the July sun, and trotted off mth a merry laugh, mocking my 
cautious counsel to avoid galloping, and come back early. 
The naughty thing never made her appearance at tea. One 
traveler, the houii^, being an old dog, and fond of its ease, 
returned ; but neither Cadiy, nor the pony, nor the two pointers 
were visible in imy direction ; and I dispatched emissaries 
down this path, and that path, and, at last, went wandeiing in 
search of her myselE 

There was a laborer working at a fence round a plantation, 
on the borders of the grounds. I inquired of him if he had 
seen our young lady ] 

" I saw her at mom," he replied, " she would have me to cut 
her a hazel switch; and then she leaped her galloway over 
the hedge yonder, where it is lowest, and galloped out ot 
sight." 

You may guess how I felt at hearing this news. It struck 
me directly she must have started for Penistone Crags. 

" What wiU become of her ]" I ejaculated, pushing through 
a gap which the man was repairing, and making straight to the 
high road. I walked as if for a wager, mile ailer mile, till a 
turn brought me in view of the Heights, but no Catherine could 
I detect, far or near. 

The Crags lie about a mile and a half beyond Mr. Heath- 
eliff's place, and that is four from the Grange, so I began to 
fear night would iall ere I could reach them. 

" And what if she should have slipped in clambering among 
them," I reflected, " and been killed, or broken some of her 
bones ]" 

My suspense was truly painful; and, at first, it gave me 
delightful relief to observe, in hurrying by the farm-house, 
Charlie, the fiercest of the pointers, lying under a window, 
ynth swelled head and bleeding ear. I opened the wicket, 
and ran to the door, knocking vehemently for admittance. A 
woman whom I knew, and who formerly lived at Gimmerton, 
answered-^«he had been sei-vant there since the death of Mr. 
Eamshaw. 

" Ah," said she, ** you are come a seeking your little mis- 



168 IVUTUE&IN6 HEIGHTS. 

tress ! don't be frightened. She's here safe — but I'm glad it 
isn't the master." 

*' He is not at home then, is he V^ I panted, quite breathless 
with quick walking and alarm. 

" No, no," she replied, " both he and Joseph are off, and 
I think they won't return this hour or more. Step in and rest 
you a bit." 

I entered, and beheld my stray lamb, seated on the hearth, 
rocking herself in a little chair that had been her mother's, 
when a child. Her hat was hung against the wall, and she 
seemed perfectly at home, laughing and chattering, in the best 
spirits imaginable, to Hareton, now a great, strong lad of 
eighteen, who stared at her with considerable curiosity and 
astonishment ; comprehending precious Httle of the fluent suc- 
cession of remariis and questions which her tongue never ceased 
pouring forth. 

" Very well. Miss," I exclaimed, concealing my joy under an 
angry countenance. ''This is your last ride till papa comes 
back. " I'll not trust you over the threshold again, you naughty, 
naughty girl." 

" Aha, Ellen 1" she cried, gayly, jumping up and running to 
my side. " I shall have a pretty story to tell to-night — and so 
you've found me out. Have you ever been here in your life 
before ]" 

" Put that hat on, and home at once," said I. " I'm dread- 
fully grieved at you. Miss Cathy — ^you've done extremely wrong ! 
It's no use pouting and crying; that won't repay the trouble 
I've had, scouring the country after you. To think how Mr. 
Linton charged me to keep you in, and you stealing off so ; it 
shows you are a cunning httle fox, and nobody will put faith in 
you any more." 

" What have I done 1" sobbed she, instantly checked. " Papa 
charged me nothing — ^hell not scold me, Ellen — ^he's never cross, 
like you !" • 

" Come, come !" I repeated. " I'll tie the ribbon. Now let 
us have no petulance. Oh, for shame. You thirteen years 
old, and such a baby !" 

This exclamation was caused by her pushing the hat from 
her head, and retreating to the chimney, out of my reach. 

" Nay," said the servant, " don't be hard on the bonny lass, 
Mrs. Dean. We made her stop ; she'd fain have ridden for- 
ward, afeard you should be uneasy. But Hareton offered to 



WUTHEBINO HEIGHTS. 169 

go with her, and I thought he should. It's a wild road over the 
hills." 

HaretoD, during the discussion, stood with his hands in his 
pockets, too awkward to speak, though he looked as if he did 
not relish my intrusion. 

" How long am I to wait 1" I continued, disregarding the 
woman's interference. " It will be dark in ten minutes. Where 
is the pony. Miss Cathy? And where is Phoenix? I shall 
leave you, unless you be quick— so please yourselfi" 

" The pony is in the yard," she replied, " and Phoenix is shut 
in there. He's bitten, and so is Charlie. I was going to tell 
you all about it, but you are in a bad temper, and don't deserve 
to hear.'* 

I picked up her hat, and approached to reinstate it ; but per- 
ceiving that the people of the house took her part, she com- 
menced capering round the room ; and, on my giving chase, ran 
like a mouse, over and under and behind the furniture, render- 
ing it ridiculous for me to pursue. Hareton and die woman 
laughed, and she joined them, and waxed more impertinent still, 
till I cried, in great irritation. 

" WeU, Miss Cathy, if you were aware whose house this is, 
you'd be glad enough to get out." 

" It's yowr father's isn't it 1" said she, turning to Hareton. 

" Nay," he replied, looking down, and blushing bashfully. 

He could not stand a steady gaze from her eyes, though they 
werejust his own. 

" Whose then — your master's 1" she asked. 

He colored deeper, with a different feeling, muttered an oath, 
and turned away. 

" Who is his master 1" continued the tiresome girl, appealing 
to me. " He talked about * our house,' and * our folk'^I thought 
he had been the owner's son. And he never said Miss ; he 
should have done, shouldn't he, if he's a servant ]" 

Hareton grew black as a thunder-cloud, at this childish speech. 
I silently shook my questioner, and at last succeeded in equip- 
ping her for departure. 

" Now get my horse," she said, addressing her unknown kins- 
man as she would one of the stable-boys at the Grrange. '* And 
you may come with me. I want to see where the goblin hun- 
ter rises in the marsh, and to hear about the fairishes, as you 
call them — but make haste! What's the matter] Get mv 
horse, I say." 

' H 



170 WUTHEBIN6 HEIGHTS. 

" I'll see thee damned, before I be thy servant !" growled the 
lad. 

^ You'll see me vshai ?** asked Catherine in surprise. 

" Damned, thou saucy witch !" he replied. 

" There, Miss Cathy f you see you have got into pretty com- 
pany," I interposed. " Nice words to be used to a young lady ! 
Fray don't be^n to dispute with him. Come, let us seek k>t 
Minny ourselves, and be gone." 

'' But, Ellen," cried she, staring, fixed in astonishment. *' How 
dare he speak so to me I Mustn't he be made to do as I ask 
him I You wicked creature, I shall tell papa what you said. 
Now then !'* 

Hareton did not appear to feel this threat ; so the tears sprung 
into her eyes with indignation. " You bring the pony," she ex- 
claimed, turning to the woman, '* and let my dog free this mo- 
ment!" 

" Softly, Miss," answered the addressed. " YouTl lose noth- 
ing by being civil. Though Mr. Hareton, there, be not the mas- 
ter's son, he's your cousin ; and I was never hired to serve you." 

" He my cousin !" cried Cathy, with a scornful laugh. 

" Yes, indeed,** responded her reprover. 

" Oh, Ellen ! don't let them say such things," she pursued in 
great trouble. Papa is gone to fetch my cousin from London — 
my cousin is a gentleman's son. That my — ^" she stopped and 
wept outright, upset at the bate notion of relationship vnth such 
a clown. 

" Hush, hush !" I whispered, " pecmle can have many cousins, 
and of all sorts, Miss Cathy, vrithout being any the worse for it ; 
only they needn't keep their company, if they be disagreeable 
and bad." 

** He's not, he's not my cousin, Ellen 1" she went on, gather- 
ing fresh grief from reflection, and flinging herself into my arms 
for refuge from the idea. I was much vexed at her and the 
servant for their mutual revelations ; having no doubt of Lin 
ton's approaching arrival, communicated by the former, being 
reported to Mr. Heathcliff; and feeling as confident that Cath- 
erine's first thought, on her father's return, would be to seek 
an explanation of the latter's assertion concerning her rude- 
bred kindred. 

Hareton, recovering from his disgust at being taken for a 
servant, seemed moved by her distress ; and, having fetched the 
pony round to the door, he took, to propitiate her. a fine 



WUTUER1N6 HEIGHTS. 171 

H'ooked-legged tenier whelp from the kennel; and, putting it 
into her hand, bid her wisht, for he meant naught. Pausing in 
her lamentations, she surveyed him with a glance of awe and 
horror, then burst forth anew. 

I could scarcely refrain from smiling at this antipathy to the 
poor fellow, who was a well made* athletic youth, good-looking 
in features, and stout and healthy, but attired in garments be- 
fitting his daily occupations of working on a &rm, and lounging 
among the moors afier rabbits and game. Still, I thought I 
could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities 
than his father ever possessed. Good things lost amid a wilder- 
ness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far overtopped their 
neglected growth ; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy 
soil that might yield luxuriant crops, under other and favorable 
circumstances. Mr. Heathcliff, I believe, had not treated him 
physically ill, thaiiks to his fearless nature which offered no 
temptation to that course of oppression ; it had none of the 
timid susceptibility that would have given zest to ill-treatment 
in Heathclin 's judgment. He appeared to have bent his male- 
volence on making him a brute ; he was never taught to read or 
write ; never rebuked for any bad habit which did not annoy his 
keeper ; never led a single step toward virtue, or guarded by a 
single pi'ecept against vice. And from what I heard, Joseph 
contributed much to his deterioration by a narrow-minded par- 
tiality, which prompted him to flatter and pet him as a boy, 
because he was the head of the old family. And as he had 
been in the habit of accusing Catherine Eamshaw and Heath- 
cliff, when children, of putting the master past his patience, 
and compelling him to seek solace in drink, by what he termed, 
their " offalld ways," so at present, he laid the whole burden 
of Hareton's faults on the shoulders of the usurper of his prop- 
erty. 

If the lad swore, he would 'nt correct him, nor however cul- 
pably he behaved. It gave Joseph satisfaction, apparently, to 
watch him go the worst lengths. He allowed that he was 
ruined, that his soul was abandoned to perdition; but then he 
reflected that Heathcliff must answer for it. Hareton's blood 
would be required at his hands ; and there lay immense con- 
solation in that thought > Joseph had instilled into him a pride 
of name, and of his lineage ; he would, had he dared, have 
fostered hate between him and the present owner of the 
Heights, but his dread of that owner amounted to superstition ; 



172 WUTHERIN6HEIGHTS. 

and he confined his feelings, regarding him to muttered inuen- 
does and private comminations. 

I don't pretend to be intimately acquainted with the mode of 
living customary in those days at Wuthering Heights. I only 
speak from hearsay ; for I saw little. The villagers affirmed 
Mr. Heathclifif was riear, and a cruel, hard landlord to his 
tenants; but the house inside had regained its ancient aspect 
of comfoit under female management ; and the scenes of riot 
common in Hindley's time, were not now enacted within its 
walls. The master was too gloomy to seek companionship with 
any people, good or bad; and he. is yet. 

This, however, is not making progress with my story. — Miss 
Cathy rejected the peace-offering of the terrier, and demanded 
her own dogs, Charlie and Phoenix. They came, limping and 
hanging their heads ; and we set out out for home, sadly out of 
sorts, every one of us. 

I could not wring from my little lady how she had spent the 
day; except that, as I supposed, the goal of her pilgrimage 
was Penistone Crags ; and she arrived without adventure to 
the gate of the farmhouse, when Hareton happened to issue 
forth, attended by some canine followers who attacked her 
train. They had a smart battle before their owners could 
separate them ; that formed an introduction. Catherine told 
Hareton who she was, and where she was going ; and asked 
him to show her the way ; finally beguiling him to accompany 
her. 

He opened the mysteries of the fairy cave, and twenty other 
queer places ; but being in disgrace, I was not favored with a 
description of the interesting objects she saw. I could gather, 
however, that her guide had been a favorite, till she hurt his 
feelings by addressing him as a servant, and Heathcliff *s house- 
keeper hurt hers, by calling him her cousin. Then the lan- 
guage he had held to her rankled in her heart ; she who was 
always " love," and " darling," and " queen," and " angel," 
with every body at the Grange, to be insulted so shockingly by 
a stranger ! She did not comprehend it, and hard work I had 
to obtain a promise that she would not lay the grievance before 
her father. 

I explained how he objected to the whole household at the 
Heights, and how sorry he would be to find she had been 
there ; but I insisted most on the fact, that if she revealed my 
negligence of his orders, he would, perhaps, be so angry that I 



- WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 173 

should haye to leave ; and Cathy couldn't bear that prospect ; 
she pledged her word, and kept it, for my sake. After all, she 
was a sweet little girL 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A LETTER edged with black announced the day of my mas« 
tor's return. Isabella was dead; and he wrote to bid me get 
mourning for his daughter, and arrange a room, and other ac- 
commodations, for his youthful nephew. Catherine ran wild 
with joy at the idea of welcoming her father back ; and indulged 
most sanguine anticipations of the innumerable excellencies of 
her " real" cousin. 

The evening of their expected arrival came. Since early 
morning she had been busy, ordering her own small affairs ; and 
now, attired in her new black frock — ^poor thing ! her aunt's 
death impressed her with no definite sorrow — she obhged me, 
by constant worrying, to walk with her down through the 
grounds to meet them. 

" Linton is just six months younger than I am," she chattered, 
as we strolled leisurely over the swells and hollows of mossy 
turf, under shadow of the trees. " How dthghtful it will be to 
have him for a playfellow ! Aunt Isabella sent papa a beautiful 
lock of his hair ; it was lighter than mine — ^more flaxen, and 
quite as fine. I have it carefiilly preserved in a little glass box ; 
and I've often thought what pleasure it would be to see its 
owner. Oh ! I am happy — and papa, dear, dear papa ! come 
Ellen, let us run ! come run !" 

She ran, and returned and ran again many times, before my 
sober footsteps reached the gate, and then she seated herself on 
the grassy bank beside the path, and tried to wait patiently j 
but that was impossible ; she couldn't be still a minute. 

" How long they are !" she exclaimed. " Ah, I see some 
dust on the road — ^they are coming ! No ! When will they be 
here 1 May we not go a httle way — ^half a mile, Ellen, only 
just half a mile ? Do say yes — to &iat clump of birches at the 
turn !" 

I reftised stanchly : and, at length, her suspense was ended : 



174 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

the traveling carriage rolled in sight. Miss Cathy shrieked, 
and stretched out her arms, as soon as she caught her father's 
face looking from the window. He descended, nearly as eager 
as herself; and a considerable interval elapsed, ere they bad a 
thought to spare for any but themselves. 

While they exchanged caresses, I took a peep in to see after 
Linton. He was asleep in a comer, wrapped in a warm, fur- 
lined cloak, as if it had been winter. A pale, delicate, effemi- 
nate boy, who might have been taken for my master's younger 
brother, so strong was the resemblance ; but there was a sickly 
peevishness in his aspect, that Edgar Linton never had. 

The latter saw me looking ; and having shaken hands, ad- 
vised me to close the door and leave him undisturbed ; for the 
journey had fatigued him. Cathy would fain have taken one 
glance ; but her father told her to come on, and they walked 
together up the park, while I hastened before to prepare the 
servants. 

" Now, darling," said Mr. Linton, addressing his daughter, as 
they halted at the bottom of the front steps. *' Your cousin is 
not so strong, or so merry as you arc, and he has lost his 
mother, remember, a very short time since ; therefore, don't ex- 

Eect him to play, and run about with you directly. And don't 
arass him much by talking — ^let him be quiet this evening, at 
least, vrill you ]" 

" Yes, yes, papa," answered Catherine ; " but I do want to 
see him ; and he hasn't once looked out." 

The carriage stopped; and the sleeper, being roused, was 
Med to the ground by his uncle. 

" This is your cousin Cathy, Linton," he said, putting their 
little hands together. " She's fond of you already ; and mind 
you don't grieve her by crying to-night. Try to be cheerful 
now ; the traveling is at an end, and you have nothing to do 
but rest and amuse yourself as you please." 

" Let me go to bed then," answered the boy, shrinking from 
Catherine's salute ; and he put his fingers to his eyes to remove 
incipient tears. 

"Come, come, there's a good child," I whispered, leading 
him in. Youll make her weep too— see how sorry she is for 
you!" * . . . 

I do not know whether it were sorrow for him, but his cousin 
put on as sad a countenance as himself, and returned to her 
father. All three entered, and mounted to the library, where 



WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 175 

tea was laid ready. I proceeded to remove Linton's cap and 
mantle, and placed him on a chair by the table ; but he was no 
sooner seated than he began to cry a&esh. My master inquired 
what was the matter. 

** I can't sit on a chair," sobbed the boy. 

" Go to the sofa then ; and Ellen shall bring you some tea," 
answered his uncle, patiently. 

He had been greatly tried during the journey, I felt convinced, 
by his fretful, ailing charge. 

Linton slowly trailed himself off, and lay down. Cathy car- 
ried a footstool and her cup to his side. At first he sat silent ; 
but that could not last ; she had resolved to make a pet of her 
little cousin, as she would have him to be ; and she commenced 
stroking his curls, and kissing his cheek, and oiTering him tea in 
her saucer, like a baby. This pleased him, for he was not 
much better ; he dried his eyes, and lightened into a faint smile. 

" Oh, he'll do very well," said the master to me, after watch- 
ing them a minute. " Very well, if we can keep him, Ellen. 
The company of a child of his own age will instill new spirit 
into him soon ; and by wishing for strength he'll gain it." 

Aye, if we can keep him! I mused to myself; and sore mis- 
givings came over me that there was slight hope of that. And 
9ien, I thought, how will that weakling ever live at Wuthering 
Heights, between his father and Hareton ? what playmates and 
instructors they'll be. 

Our doubts were presently decided ; even earlier than I ex- 
pected. I had just taken the children up-stairs, after tea was 
finished; and seen Linton asleep— he would not suffer me to 
leave him, till that was the case. I had come down, and was 
standing by the table in the hall, lighting a bedroom candle for 
Mr. Edgar, when a maid stepped out of the kitchen, and in- 
formed me that Mr. Hetthcliff*s servant, Joseph was at the 
door, and wished to speak with the master. 

" I shall ask him what he wants first," I said, in considerable 
trepidation. ** A very unlikely hour to be troubling people, and 
the instant they have returned from a long journey. I don't 
think the master can see him." 

Joseph had advanced through the kitchen, as I uttered these 
words, and now presented himself in the halL He was donned 
in his Sunday garments, with his most sanctimonious and sour- 
est face ; and holding his hat in one hand, and his stick in the 
other, he proceeded to clean his shoes on the mat. 



176 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

" Good evening, Joseph," I said, coldly. " What business 
brines you here to-night i" 

** It's Maister Linton aw mun spake tull," he answered wav- 
ing me disdainfully aside. 

•* Mr. Linton is going to bed ; unless you have something par- 
ticular to say, I'm sure he wont hear it now," I continued. 
"You had better sit down there and intrust your message to me." 

"Which is his rahml" pursued the fellow, surveying the 
range of closed doors. 

I perceived he was bent on refusing my mediation ; so, very 
reluctantly, I went up to the library, and announced the unsea- 
sonable visitor ; advising that he should be dismissed till next 
day. Mr. Linton had no time to empower me to do so, for he 
mounted close at my heels, and pushing into the apartment, 
planted himself at the far side of the table, with his two fists 
clapped on the head of his stick, and began, in an elevated tone, 
as if he anticipated opposition, 

" Heathclin has sent me for his lad, un aw mun'n*t goa back 
'bahthim." 

Edgar Linton was silent a minute ; an expression of exceed- 
ing sorrow overcast his features ; he would have pitied the child 
on his own account ; but, recalling Isabella's hopes and fears, 
and anxious wishes for her son, and her commendations of him 
to his care, he grieved bitterly at the prospect of yielding him 
up, and searched in his heart how it might be avoided. No 
plan offered itself; the very exhibition of any desire to keep 
aim would have rendered the claimant more peremptory ; there 
was nothing lef^ but to resign him. However, he was not 
going to rouse him from his sleep. 

"Tell Mr. Heathcliff," he answered, calmly, "that his son 
shall come to Wuthering Heights to-morrow. He is in bed, 
and too tired to go the distance now. You may also tell him 
that the mother of Linton desired him to remain under my 
guai'dianship ; and, at present, his health is very precarious." 

"Noa!" said Joseph, giving a thud with his prop on the 
floor, and assuming an authoritative air. " Noa ! that manes 
nowt — Heathcliff maks noa 'cahnt uh t* mother, nur yah norther 
— ^bud he'U hev his lad ; und aw mun tak him — soa nah yah 
knaw !" 

" You shall not to-night !" answered Linton, decisively. 
" Walk down stairs at once, and repeat to your master what I 
have said. Ellen, show him dovni. Go—" 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 177 

And, aiding the indignant elder with a lifb by the arm, he rid 
the room of him and closed the door. 

"Varrah weel!" shouted Joseph, as he slowly drew off 
" Tuh mora, he's come hisseln, un' thrust him aht, if yah darr!" 



CHAPTER XX. 

To obviate the danger of this threat being jfulfiUed, Mr 
Linton commissioned me to take the boy home early, on 
Catherine's pony, and, said he— 

" As we shall now have no influence over his destiny, good 
or bad, you must say nothing of where he is gone to my 
daughter; she can not associate with him hereafter; and it is 
better for her to remain in ignorance of his proximity, lest she 
should be restless, and anxious to visit the Heights — merely tell 
her, his father sent for him suddenly, and he has been obliged 
to leave us." 

Linton was very reluctant to be roused from his bed at five 
o^clock, and astonished to be informed that he must prepai*e for 
further travehng : but I softened off the matter by stating that 
he was going to spend some time vnth his father, Mr. Heath- 
cliff, who wished to see him so much, he did not like to defer 
the pleasure till he should recover from his late journey. 

"My father!" he cried, in strange perplexity. "Mamma 
never told me I had a father. Where does he live % I'd 
rather stay with uncle." 

" He lives a little distance from the Grange," I replied, "just 
beyond those hills — ^not so far but you may walk over here, 
when you get hearty. And you should be glad to go home, 
and to see him. You must try to love him, as you did your 
mother, and then he will love you." 

" But why have I not heard of him before *?" asked Linton ; 
" why didn't mamma and he live together as other people do *?" 

" He had business to keep him in the north," I ariBwered ; 
" and your mother's health required her to reside) in the 
south." 

" And why didn't mamma speak to me about him 1" perse- 
vered the child. " She often talked of uncle, and I learned to 



178 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

love him long ago. How am I to love papal I don't know 
him." 

" Oh, all children love their parents," I said. " Your mother, 
perhaps, thought you would want to be with him, if she men- 
tioned him often to you. Let us make haste. An early ride 
on such a beautiful morning is much preferable to an hour's 
more sleep." 

" Is she to go vdth us 1" he demanded. " The little girl I 
saw yesterday 1" 

" Not now," replied I. 

"Is uncle i" he continued. 

" No, I shall be your companion there," I said. 

Linton sank back on his pillow, and fell into a brown study. 

" I won't go without uncle ;" he cried at length : " I can't 
tell wh^re you mean to take me." 

I attempted to persuade him of the naughtiness of showing 
reluctance to meet his father : still he obstinately resisted any 
progress toward dressing; and I had to call for my master's 
assistance in coaxing him out of bed. The poor thing was 
finally got off with several delusive assurances that his absence 
should be short ; that Mr. Edgar and Cathy would visit him ; 
and other promises, equally ill-founded, which I invented and 
reiterated, at intervals, throughout the way. 

The pure heather-scented air, the bright sunshine^ and the 

fentle canter of Minny, relieved his despondency after a while. 
[e began to put questions concerning his new home, and its in- 
habitants, witn greater interest and liveliness. 

" Is Wuthering Heights as pleasant a place as Thrushcross 
Grange ?" he inquired, turning to take a last glance into the 
valley, whence a light mist mounted, and formed fleecy clouds, 
on the skirts of the blue. 

" It is not so buried in trees," I replied, " and it is not quite so 
large, but you can see the country beautifully, all round x and the 
air is healthier for you — ^fi'esher and dryer. You will, perhaps, 
think the building old and dark, at first — though it is a respect- 
able house, the next best in the neighborhood. And you will 
have such nice rambles on the moors ! Hareton Earnshaw — 
that is Miss Cathy's other cousin, and so yours in a manner — 
will show you all the sweetest spots ; and you can bring a book 
in fine weather, and make a green hollow your study; and, 
now and then, your uncle may join you in a walk ; he does 
frequently walk out on the hills." 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 179 

" And wbat is my father Kke 1" he asked. " Is he as young 
and handsome as uncle V* 

" He's as young," said I, ** but he has black hair and eyes, 
and looks sterner; and he is taller and bigger altogether. 
He'll not seem to you so gentle and kind at first, perhaps, 
because it is not his way ; still, mind you be frank and cordial 
with him, and, naturally, he'll be fonder of you than any uncle, 
for you are his own." 

" Black hair and eyes !" mused Linton. " I can't fancy him. 
Then I am not like him, am I V* 

"Not much," I answered. "Not a morsel," I thought; 
surveying with regret the white complexion and slim frame 
of my companion, and his large languid eyes — his mother's 
eyes, save that, unless a morbid touchiness kindled them a 
moment, they had not a vestige of her sparkling spirit 

" How strange that he should never come to see mamma 
and me," he murmured. " Has he ever seen me ? If he have, 
I must have been a baby — I remember not a single thing about 
him!" 

" Why, Master Linton," said I, " three hundred miles is a 
great distance ; and ten years seem very different in length to 
a grown up person, compared wdth what they do to you. It 
is probable Mr. Heathcliff proposed going, from summer to 
summer, but never found a convenient opportunity ; and now 
it is too late. Don't trouble him with questions on the subject ; 
it will disturb him for no good." 

The boy was fully occupied with his own cogitations for the 
remainder of the ride, till we halted before the farmhouse gar- 
den gate. I watched to catch his impressions in his counte- 
nance. He surveyed the caiTed front, and low-browed lattices, 
the straggling gooseberry bushes, and crooked firs, vnth solemn 
intentness, and then shook his head ; his private feelings entire- 
ly disapproved of the exterior of his new abode ; but he had 
sense to postpone complaining — there might be compensation 
within. 

; Before he dismounted, I went and opened the door. It wsa 
half-past six ; the family had just finished breakfast ; the servant 
was clearing and wiping down the table ; Joseph stood by his 
master's chair telling some tale concerning a lame hoi^e ; and 
Hareton was preparing for the hay-field. 

. "Hallo, Nelly!" cried Mr. Heathcliff, when he saw me. 
" I feared I should have to come down and fetch my property 



180 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

myself. YouVe brought it, have you ? Let us see what we 
can make of it." 

He got up and strode to the door : Hareton and Joseph fol- 
lowed in gaping curiosity. Poor Linton ran a frightened eye 
over the faces of the three. 

" Sure-ly," said Joseph, after a grave inspection, " he's 
swopped wi' ye, maister, an' yen's his lass !" 

Heathcliff having- stared his son into an ague of confusion, ut- 
terred a scornful laugh. 

" God ! what a beauty ! what a lovely, charming thing !" he 
exclaimed. " Haven't they reared it on snails and sour milk, 
Nelly 1 Oh, damn my soul ! but that's worse than I expected 
— and the devil knows I was not sanguine !" 

I bid the trembling and bewildered child get down and en- 
ter. He did not thoroughly comprehend the meaning of his fa 
ther's speech, or whether it were intended for him : indeed, he 
was not yet certain that the grim, sneering stranger was his 
father ; but he clung to me with Rowing trepidation ; and on 
Mr. HeathclifPs taking a seat, and bidding him " come hither," 
he hid his face on my shoulder, and wept. 

" Tut, tut !" said Heathcliff, stretching out a hand and drag- 
ging him roughly between his knees, and then holding up his 
head by the chin. " None of that nonsense ! we're not going 
to hurt thee, Linton — ^isn't that thy namel Thou art thy 
mother's child, entirely ! Where is my share in thee, puling 
chicken V 

He took off the boy's cap and brushed back his thick flaxen 
curls, felt his slender arms, and his small fingers ; during which 
examination, Linton ceased crying, and lifted his great blue 
eyes to inspect the inspector. 

" Do you know me V asked Heathcliff) having satisfied him- 
self that the limbs were all equally frail and feeble, 

" No !" said Linton, with a gaze of vacant fear. 

" You've heard of me, I dare say V* 

" No," he replied again. 

" No 1 What a shame of your mother, never to waken your 
filial regard for me ! You are my son, then, I'll tell you ; and 
your mother was a wicked slut to leave you in ignorance of the 
sort of father you possessed. Now, don't wince and color up ! 
though it is something to see you have not white blood. Be a 
good lad ; and I'll do for you. Nelly, if you be tired you may 
sit down, if not, get home again. I guess you'll report what 



WUTbERING HEIGHTS. 181 

you hear and see, to the cipher at the Grange ; and this thin|^ 
won't be settled while you linger about it" 

" Well," replied I, ** I hope you'll be kind to the boy, Mr 
Heathdifif, or you'll not keep him long, and he's all you have 
akin in the wide world that you will ever know — remember." 

" I'll be very kind to him ; you needn't fear !" he said, laugh- 
ing. " Only nobody else must be kind to him. I'm jealous of 
monopolizing his afifection. And, to begin my kindness, Joseph, 
bring the lad some breakfast. Hareton, you infernal calf, be- 
gone to your work. Yes, Nell," he added when they were de- 
parted, " my son is prospective owner of your place, and I should 
not wish him to die till I was certain of being his successor. 
Besides, he's mine, and I want the triumph of seeine my de- 
scendant fairly lord of their estates — my child hiring tneir chil- 
dren to till their fathers*^ lands for wages. That is the sole con- 
sideration which can make me endure Ihe whelp — I despise him 
for himself, and hate him for the memories he revives ! But that 
consideration is sufficient; he's as safe with me, and shaH be 
tended as carefully as your master tends his own. I have a 
room up-stairs, furnished for him in handsome style ; I've en- 
gaged a tutor, also, to come three times a week from twenty 
miles distance, to teach him what he pleases to learn. I've or- 
dered Hareton to obey him ; and, in fact, I've an*anged every 
thing with a view to pi^serve the superior and the gentleman in 
tiim above his associates. I do regret, however, that he so little 
Jeserves the trouble. If I wished any blessing in the world, it 
iv^as to find him a worthy object of pnde, and I'm bitterly disap- 
pointed with the whey-faced, whining wretch !" 

While he was speaking, Joseph returned, bearing a basin of 
milk-porridge, and placed it before Linton. He stirred round 
the homely mess with a look of aversion, and affirmed he could 
not eat it. I saw the old man-servant shared largely in his mas- 
ter'^ scorn of the child, though he was compelled 1:o retain the 
sentiment in his heart, because Heathcliff plainly meant his un- 
derlings to hold him in honor. 

" Cannut ate it 1" repeated he, peering in Linton's face, and 
subduing his voice to a whisper, for fear of being overheard. 
" But Maister Hareton nivir ate nowt else when he wer a little 
un ; und what wer gooid enough fur him's gooid eueugh fur yah, 
aw's rayther think !" 

" I shan't eat it !" answered Linton, snappishly. ^ Take it 
away." 



183 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

Joseph snatched up the food indignantly, and brought it 
to us. 

" Is there owt ails th* victuals V* he asked, thrusting the tray 
under Heathcliff's nose. 

" What should ail them V* he said. 

" Wah !*' answered Joseph, " yon dainty chap says he cannut 
ate 'em. Bud aw guess it's raight. His mother wer just soa — 
we wer a'most too mucky tuh sow th* com fur makking her 
breead." 

** Don't mention his mother to me," said the master, angrily. 
" Get him something that he can eat, that's all. What is his 
usual food, Nelly V 

I suggested boiled milk or tea, and the housekeeper received 
instructions to prepare some. 

" Come," I reflected, " his father's selfishness may contribute 
to his comfort. He perceives his delicate constitution, and the 
necessity of treating him tolerably. I'll console Mr. Edgar by 
acquainting him with the turn Heathcliflfs humor has taken." 

Having no excuse for lingering longer, I slipped out, while 
Linton was engaged in timidly rebuffing the advances of a fiiend- 
ly sheep«dogk But he was too much on the alert to be cheated : 
as I closed the door I heard a cry, and a frantic repetition of the 
words — 

" Don't leave me ! I'll not stay here ! I'll not stay here !" 

Then the latch was raised and fell — ^they did not suffer him 
to iome forth. I mounted Minny, and urged her to a trot, and 
so my brief guardianship ended. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

We had sad work with little Cathy that day : she rose in 
high glee, eager to join her cousin ; and such passionate tears 
and lamentations followed the news of his departure, that Edgar 
himself was obliged to soothe her by affirming he should come 
back soon ; he added, however, " if I can get him," and there 
were no hopes of that. This promise poorly pacified her ; but 
time was more potent ; and though still at intervals she inquired 
of her father when Linton would return, before she did see him 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 183 

again his features had waxed so dim in her memory that she did 
not recognize him. 

When I chanced to encounter the housekeeper of Wuthering 
Heights, in paying business visits to Gimmerton, I used to ask 
how the young master got on ; for he lived almost as secluded 
as Catherine herself, and was never to be seen. I could gather. 
fi*om her that he continued in weak health, and was a tiresome 
inmate. She said Mr. Heathcliff seemed to dislike him ever 
longer and worse, though he took some ti'ouble to conceal it. 
He had an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do 
at all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes 
together. There seldom passed much talk between them ; Lin- 
ton learned his lessons, and spent his evenings in a small apart- 
ment they called the parlor ; or else lay in bed all day ; for he 
was constantly getting coughs, and colds, and aches, and pains 
of some sort. 

" And I never knew such a faint-hearted creature," added the 
woman ; " nor one so careful of hisseln. He wiU go on, if I 
leave the window open a bit late in the evening. Oh ! it's killing, 
a breath of night air ! And he must have a fire in the middle 
of summer ; and Joseph's 'bacca pipe is poison ; and he must 
always have sweets and dainties, and always milk, milk for ever 
— ^heeding naught how the rest of us are pinched in winter — and 
there he'll sit, wrapped in his furred cloak, in his chair by the 
fire, and some toast and water, or other slop, on the hob to sip 
at ; and if Hareton, for pity, comes to amuse him^ — Hareton is 
not bad-natured, though he's rough — they're sure to part, one 
swearing, and the other crying. I believe the master would 
relish Eamshaw's thrashing him to a mummy, if he were not 
his son : and, I'm certain, he would be fit to turn him out of 
doora, if he knew half the nursing he gives hisseln. But then, 
he won't go into danger of temptation ; he never entei*s the 

Earlor, and should Linton show those ways in the house where 
e is, he sends him up stairs directly." 

I divined, from this account, that utter lack of sympathy had 
rendered young Heathcliff selfish and disagi-eeable, if he were 
not so originally ; and my interest in him, consequently, decayed ; 
though still I was moved with a sense of grief at his lot, and a 
wish that he had been Icfl with us. 

Mr. Edgar encouraged me to gain information ; he thought a 
great deal about him, I fancy, and would have run some risk to 
see him ; and he told me once to ask the housekeeper whether 



184 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 

be ever came into the village ? She said he had only been 
twice, on horseback, accompanying his father : and both times 
he pretended to be quite knocked up for three or four days 
afterward. ' The housekeeper left, if I recollect rightly, two 
years aft^r he came ; and another, whom I did not know, was 
her successor : she lives there still. 

Time wore on at the Grange in its former pleasant way, till 
Miss Cathy reached sixteen. On the anniversary of her birth 
we never manifested any signs of rejoicing, because it was also 
the anniversary of my late mistress's death. Her father invari- 
ably spent that day alone in the library ; and walked, at dusk, 
as far as Gimmerton kirkyard, where he would frequently 
prolong his stay beyond midnight. Therefore Catherine was 
thrown on her own resources for amusement. 

This twentieth of March was a beautiful spring day, and when 
her father had retired, my young lady came down, dressed for 
going out, and said she had asked to have % ramble on the edge 
of the moors with me ; and Mr. Linton had given her leave, if 
we went only a short distance, and were back within the hour. 

" So make haste, Ellen !" she cried. " I know where I wish 
to go ; where a colony of moor game are settled ; I want to see 
whether they have made their nests yet." 

" That must be a good distance up,'* I answered ; " they 
don't breed on the edge of the moor." 

" No, it's not," she said. " I've gone very near with papa." 

I put on my bonnet, and sallied out ; thinking nothing more 
of the matter. She bounded before me, and returned to my 
side, and was off again like a young grayhound ; and, at first, I 
found plenty of entertainment in listening to the larks singing 
far and near ; and enjoying the sweet, warm sunshine ; and 
watching her, my pet and my delight, with her golden linglets 
flying loose behind, and her bright cheek, as soft and pure in its 
bloom as a wild rose, and her eyes radiant with cloudlesss pleas- 
ure. She was a happy creature, and an angel, in those days. 
It's a pity she could not be content. 

"Well," said I, "where are your moor game, Miss Cathy 1 
We should be at them — the Grange park-fence is a great way 
off now." 

" Oh, a little further — only a little further, Ellen," was her 
answer, continually. "Climb to that hillock, pass that bank, 
and by the time you reach the other side, I shall have raised the 
birds." 

t 



WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 185 

But there were so many hillocks and banks to climb and pass, 
that, at length, I began to be weary, and told her we must halt, 
and retrace our steps. I shouted to her, as she had outstripped 
me a long way ; she either did not hear, or did not regara, for 
she still sprang on, and I was compelled to follow. Finally, she 
dived into a hollow ; and before I came in sight of her again, 
she was two miles nearer Wuthering Heights than her own 
home ; and I beheld a couple of persons arrest her, one of whom 
I felt convinced was Mr. Heathcliff himself. 

Cathy had been caught in the fact of plundering, or, at least, 
hunting out the nests of the grouse. The Heights were Heath- 
cliff's land, and he was reproving the poacher. 

" I've neither taken any nor found any," she said, as I toiled 
to them, expanding her hands in corroboration of the statement. 
** I didn't mean to take them ; but papa told me there were 
quantities up here, and I wished to see the eggs." 

Heathcliff glanced at me with an ill-meaning smile» express- 
ing his acquaintance with the party, and^ consequently, his ma- 
levolence toward it, and demanded who " papa" was 1 

" Mr. Linton of Thrushcross Grange," she replied. " I thought 
you did not know me, or you wouldn't have spoken in that 
way," 

** You suppose papa is highly esteemed and respected theni** 
he said, sarcastically. 

"And what are you*?" inquired Catherine, gazing curiously 
on the speaker. " That man I've seen before. Is he your son V* 

She pointed to Hareton, the other individual ; who had gained 
nothing but increased bulk and strength by the addition of two 
years to his age : he seemed as awkward and rough as ever. 

" Miss Cathy," I interrupted, " it will be three hours instead 
of one, that we are out, presently. We really must go back." 

" No, that man is not my son," answered Heathcliff, pushing 
me aside, " But I have one, and you have seen him before 
too ; and, though your nurse is in a hurry, I think both you and 
she would be the better for a little rest. Will you just turn this 
nab of heath, and walk into my house 1 You'll get home earlier 
for the ease ; and you shall receive a kind welcome." 

I whispered Catherine that she mustn't, on any account, ac- 
cede to the proposal ; it was entirely out of the question. 

** Why 1" she asked aloud. " I'm tired of running, and the 
ground is dewy — I can't sit here. Let us go, Ellen ! Besides, 
he says I have seen his son. He's mistaken, I think; but I 



186 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

guess where he lives— at the farmhouse I visited in coming from 
Fenistone Crags. Don't you 1" 

" I do. Come, Nelly, hold your tongue — ^it will be a treat 
for her to look in on us. Hareton, get forward with the lass. 
You shall walk with me, Nelly." 

" No, she's not going to any such place," I cried, struggling 
LO release my arm which he had seized ; but she was almost at 
the door-stones already, scampering round the brow at ^11 speed. 
Her appointed companion did not pretend to escort her; he 
shyed off by the roadside, and vanished. 

" Mr. Heatbcliff, it's very wi'ong," I continued, " you know 
you mean no good; and there she'll see Linton, and all will be 
told as soon as ever we return, and I shallhave the blame." 

" I want her to see Linton," he answered : "he's looking bet- 
ter these few days ; it's not often he's fit to be seen. And we'll 
soon persuade her to keep the visit secret — where is the harm 
ofitr 

" The harm of it is, that her father would hate me, if he found 
I suffered her to enter your house; and 1 am convinced you 
have a bad design in encouraging her to do so," I replied. 

" My design is as honest as possible. I'll inform you of its 
whole scope," he said. " That the two cousins may fell in love 
and get married. I'm acting generously to your master ; his 
young chit has no expectations; and should she second my 
vnshes, she'll be provided for at once as joint successor with 
Linton." 

" If Linton died," I answered, " and his life is quite uncer- 
tain, Catherine would be the heir." 

" No she would not," he said ; " there is no clause in the will 
to secure it so ; his property would go to me ; but, to prevent 
disputes, I desire their union, and am resolved to bring it about." 

" And I'm resolved she shall never approach your house with 
me again," I returned, as we reached the gate, where Miss 
Cathy waited our coming, 

Heathcliff bid me be quiet ; and, preceding us up the path, 
hastened to open the door. My young lady gave him several 
looks, as if she could not exactly make up her mind what to 
think of him ; but now he smiled when he met her eye, and 
softened his voice in addressing her, and I was foolish enough 
to imagine the memory of her mother might disaim him from 
desiring her injury. 

Linton stood on the hea/.'th. He had been out walking in the 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 187 

fields, for his cap was on, and he was calling to Joseph to bring 
him dry shoes. He had grown tall of his age, still wanting 
some months of sixteen. His features were pretty yet, and his 
eye and complexion brighter than I remembered them, though 
with merely temporary lustre borrowed from the salubrious air 
and genial sun. 

** Now, who is that 1" asked Mr. Heathcliff, turning to Cathy. 
"Can you tell r 

** Your son V* she said, haying doubtfully surveyed first one 
and then the other. 

"Yes, yes," answei'ed he; "but is this the only time you 
have beheld himi Think! Ah! you have a short memory. 
Linton, don't you recall your cousin, that you used to tease us 
so with wishing to see V* 

"What, Linton!" cried Cathy, kindling into joyfiil surprise 
at the name. " Is that little Linton ] He's taller than I am ! 
Are you Linton ?" 

The youth stepped forward and acknowledged himself: she 
kissed him fervently, and they gazed with wonder at the change 
time had wrought in the appearance of each. 

Catherine had reached her fiiU height; her figure was both 
plump and slender, elastic as steel, and her whole aspect spark- 
ling with health and spirits. Linton's looks and movements 
were very languid, and his foi-m extremely slight; but there 
was a gi*ace in his manner that mitigated these defects, and 
rendered him not unpleasing. 

After exchanging numerous marks of fondness with him, his 
cousin went to Mr. Heathcliff, who lingered by the door, divid- 
ing his attention between the objects inside, and those that lay 
vnthout, pretending, that is, to observe the latter, and really 
noting the former alone. 

" And you are my uncle, then !" she cried, reaching up to 
salute him. " I thought I liked you, though you were cross at 
first. Why don't you visit at the Grange with Linton 1 To 
live all these years such close neighbors, and never see us, is 
odd ; what have you done so for V* 

" I visited it once or twice too often before you were bom,*' 
he answered. " There — damn it ! If you have any kisses to 
spare, give them to Linton — they are thrown away on me." 

" Naughty Ellen !" exclaimed Catherine, flying to attack me 
next with her lavish caresses. "Wicked Ellen ! to try to hinder 
me from entering. But I'H take this walk every morning in 



188 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

future — may I, uncle — and sometimes bring papa ? Won't you 
be glad to see us 1" 

" Of coui^ !" replied the uncle, with a hardly suppressed 
grimace, resulting from his deep aversion to both the proposed 
visitors. " But stay," he continued, turning toward the young 
lady. " Now I think of it, I'd better tell you. Mr. Linton has 
a prejudice against me ;* we quarreled at one time of our lives 
with unchristian ferocity ; and, if you mention coming here to 
him, he'll put a veto on your visits altogether. Therefore, you 
must not mention it, unless you be careless of seeing your 
cousin hereafter — ^you may come, if you will, but you must not 
mention it." 

'" Why did you quarrel V asked Catherine, considerably crest- 
fallen. 

** He thought me too poor to wed his sister," answered Heath- 
cliff, " and was grieved that I got her — ^his pride was hurt, and 
he'll never forgive it." 

" That's wrong !" said the young lady : " sometime I'll tell 
him so ; but Linton and I have no share in your quarrel. I'll 
not come here, then, he shall come to the Grange." 

" It will be too far for me," murmured her cousin, " to walk 
four miles would kill me. No, come here. Miss Catherine, now 
and then, not every morning, but once or twice a week." 

The father launched toward his son a glance of bitter con- 
tempt. 

" I am afi-aid, Nelly, I shall lose my labor," he muttered to 
me. " Miss Catherine, as the ninny calls her, will discover his 
value, and send him to the devil. Now, if it had been Hareton 
— do you know that, twenty times a day, I covet Hareton, with 
all his degradation ] I'd have loved the lad had he been some 
one else. But I think he's safe from her love. I'll pit him 
against that paltry creature, unless it bestir itself briskly. We 
calculate it will scarcely last till it is eighteen. Oh, confound 
the vapid thing. He's absorbed in drying his feet, and never 
looks at her — Linton !" 

" Yes, father," answered the boy. 

" Have you nothing to show your cousin, any where about ; 
not even a rabbit, or a weasel's nest ? Take her into the gar- 
den, before you change your shoes ; and into the stable to see 
your horse." 

" Wouldn't you rather sit here 1" asked Linton, addressing 
Cathy in a tone which expressed reluctance to move again. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 189 

__^ 1 

"I don't know," she replied, casting a longing look to the 
door, and evidently eager to be active. 

He kept his seat, and shrank closer to the fire. Heathcliff 
rose, and v^ent into the kitchen, and from thence to the yard, 
calling out for Hareton. Hareton responded, and presently the 
two re-entered. The young man had been washing himself, as 
was visible by the glow on his cheeks, and his wetted hair. 

" Oh, 1*11 ask you^ uncle ;" cried Miss Cathy, recollecting the 
housekeeper's assertion. " That's not my cousin, is he ^" 

" Yes," he replied, " your mother's nephew. • Don't you like 
him r' 

Catherine looked queer. 

" Is he not a handsome lad 1" he continued. 

The uncivil little thing stood on tiptoe, and whispered a 
sentence in Heathcliff's ear. 

He laughed ; Hareton darkened ; I perceived he was very 
sensitive to suspected slights, and had obviously a dim notion of 
his inferiority. But his master or guardian chased the frown 
by exclaiming — 

" You'll be the favorite among us, Hareton ! She says you 
are a-^— what was it % Well, something very flattering. Hei-e ! 
you go with her round the fann. And behave like a gentle- 
man, mind ! Don't use any bad words ; and don't stare when 
the young lady is not looking at you, and be ready to hide your 
face when she is ; and, when you speak, say your words slowly, 
and keep your hands out of your pockets. Be off, and entertain 
her as nicely as you can." 

He watched the couple walking past the window. Eamshaw 
had his countenance completely averted from his companion. 
He seemed studying the familiar landscape with a stranger's, 
and an artist's interest. Catherine took a sly look at him, ex- 
pressing small admiration. She then turned her attention to 
seeking out objects of amusement for herself, and tripped mer- 
rily on, lilting a tune to supply the lack of conversation. 

" I've tied his tongue," observed Heathcliff. " He'll not 
tentiire a single syllable all the time ! Nelly, you recollect 
me at his age — nay, some years younger. Did I ever look so 
stupid, so * gaumless,' as Joseph calls it V^ 

*• Worse," 1 replied, " because more sullen with it." 

" I've a pleasure in him !" he continued, reflecting aloud. 
" He has satisfied ray expectations. If he were a bom fool I 
should not enjoy it half so much. But he's no fool ; and I can 



190 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

sympathize with all his feeliugs, haying felt them myself. I 
know what he suffers now, for instance, exactly — it is merely a 
beginning of what he shall suffer, though. And he'll never be 
able to emerge from his bathos of coarseness and ignorance. 
I've got him faster than his scoundrel of a father secured me, 
and lower ; for he takes a pride in his brutishness. I've taught 
him to scorn every thing extra-animal, as silly and weak. 
Don't you think Hindley would be proud of his son, if he 
could see him 1 almost as proud as I am of mine. But there's 
this difference, one is gold put to the use of paving stones; 
and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver. Mine 
has nothing valuable about it ; yet I shall have the merit of 
making it go as far as such poor stuff can go. His had first- 
rate qualities, and they are lost — rendered worae than unavail- 
ing. I have nothing to regret ; he would have more than any 
but I are aware of. And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably 
fond of me ! You'll own that I've out-matched Hindley there. 
If the dead villain could rise from his grave to abuse me for 
his offspring's wrongs, I should have the fun of seeing the said 
ofl&pring fight him back again, indignant that he should dare to 
rail at the one friend he has in the world !" 

Heath cliff chuckled a fiendish laugh at the idea ; I made no 
reply, because I saw that he expected none. 

Meantime, our young companion, who sat too removed from 
us to hear what was said, began to evince symptoms of uneasi- 
ness : probably repenting that he had denied himself the treat 
of Catherine's society, for fear of a little fatigue. His father 
remarked the restless glances wandering to the window, and 
the hand irresolutely extended toward his cap. 

** Get up, you idle boy !" he exclaimed with assumed hearti- 
ness. " Away after them — they are just at the corner, by th^ 
stand of hives." 

Linton gathered bis energies, and left the hearth. Thf 
lattice was open» and, as he stepped out, I heard Cathy in 
quiring of her unsociable attendant, what was that inscriptiot 
over the door 1 

Hareton stared up, and scratched his head like a true 
clown. 

" It's some damnable writing ;" he answered. " I can not 
read it." 

" Can't read it ?" cried Catherine, " I can read it — ^it's En- 
glish — but I want to know why it is there." 



VVUTUERIN6 HEIGHTS. 101 

Linton giggled — the first appearance of mirth he had ex- 
hibited. 

'* He does not know his letters/' he said to his cousin. " Could 
you believe in the existence of such a colossal dunce 1" 

** Is he all as he should be V asked Miss Cathy seriously, 
" or is he simple— not right V* I've questioned him twice now, 
and each time he looked so stupid, I think he does not under- 
stand me ; I can hardly understand him I'm sure. 

Lintpn repeated his laugh, and glanced at Hareton taunt- 
ingly, who certainly did not seem quite clear of comprehension 
at that moment. 

" There's nothing the matter but laziness, is there, Earn- 
shaw 1" he said. "My cousin fancies you are an idiot. There 
you experience the consequence of scorning ' book laming,' as 
you would say. Have you noticed, Catherine, his frightful 
Yorkshire pronunciation 1" 

" Why, where the devil is the use on't V* growled Hareton, 
more ready in answering his daily companion. He was about 
to enlarge further, but the two youngsters broke into a noisy fit 
of merriment ; my giddy Miss being delighted to discover that 
she might turn his strange talk to matter of amusement. 

" Where is the use of *the devil' in that sentence 1" tittered 
Linton. " Papa told you not to say any bad words, and you 
can't open your mouth writhout one. Do try to behave like a 
gentleman, now do !" 

" If thou wem't more a lass than a lad, I'd fell thee this 
minute, I would ; pitiful lath of a crater !" retorted the angry 
boor retreating, while his face burned with mingled i*age and 
mortification ; for he was conscious of being insulted, and em- 
barrassed how to resent it. 

Mr. Heathcliff, having overheard the conversation, as well as 
I, smiled when he saw him go, but immediately afterward cast 
a look of singular aversion on the flippant pair, who remained 
chattering in the door-way. The boy finding animation enough 
while discussing Hareton's faults and deficiencies, and relating 
anecdotes of his goings on ; and the girl relishing his pert and 
spiteful sayings, without considering the ill-nature they evinced : 
but I began to dislike, more than to compassionate, Linton, 
and to excuse his father, in some measure., for holding him cheap. 

We stayed till afternoon ; I could not tear Miss Cathy away 
before ; but, happily, my master had not quitted his apartment 
and remained ignorant of our prolonged absence. 



192 WUTUERING HEIGHTS. 

As we walked home, I would fain have enlightened my 
charge on the character of the people we had quitted; but 
she got it into her head that I was prejudiced against them. 

" Aha !" she cried, " you take papa's side, Ellen — you are 
partial, I know, or else you wouldn't have cheated me so many 
years, into the notion that Linton lived a long way from here, 
I'm really extremely angry, only, I'm so pleased, I can't show 
it ! But you must hold your tongue about my uncle — ^he's my 
uncle, remember, and I'll scold papa for quarreling with him." 

And so she ran on, till I dropped endeavoring to convince her - 
of her mistake. She did not mention the visit that night, be- 
cause she did not see Mr. Linton. Next day it all came out, 
sadly to my chagrin ; and still, I was not altogether sorry : 1 
thought the burden of directing and warning would be more 
efficiently borne by him than me, but he was too timid in giving 
satisfactory reasons for his wish that she would shun connection 
with the household of the Heights, and Catherine liked good 
reasons for every restraint that harassed her petted will. 

" Papa !" she exclaimed after the morning's salutations, 
" guess, whom I saw yesterday, in my walk on the mooi-s. 
Ah, papa, you started ! you've not done right, have you, now 1 
I saw. But listen, and you shall hear how I found you out, 
and Ellen, who is in league with you, and yet pretended to pity 
me so, when I kept hoping, and was always disappointed about 
Linton's coming back !" 

She gave a faithful account of her excursion and its conse- 
quences; and my master, though he cast more than one re- 
proachful look at me, said nothing, till she had concluded. 
Then he drew her to him, and asked if she knew why he had 
concealed Linton's near neighborhood from her? Could she 
think it was to deny her a pleasure that she might harmlessly 
enjoy ? 

** It was because you disliked Mr. HeathclifT," she answered. 

" Then you believe I care more for my own feelings than 
yours, Cathy ?" he said. " No, it was not because I disliked Mr. 
Heathcliff; but because Mr. Heathcliff dislikes me; and is a 
most diabolical n!an, delighting to wrong and ruin those he 
hates, if they give him the slightest opportunity. I knew that 
you could not keep up an acquaintance with your cousin, with- 
out being brought into contact with him ; and I knew he would 
detest you, on my account ; so, for your own good, and nothing 
else, I took precautions that you should not see Linton again. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 193 

I meant to explain this, some time, as you grew older, and I'm 
sorry I delayed it !" 

** But Heathcliff was quite cordial, papa/' observed Cathei^ney 
not at all convinced ; '* and he didn't object to our seeing each 
other : he said I mi^t come to his house when I pleased, only 
I must not tell you, because you had quarreled vnth him, and 
would not forgive him for marrying aunt Isabella. And you 
won't — you are the one to be blamed — ^he is willing to let us be 
friends, at least ; Linton and I — and you are not." 

My master, perceiving that she would not take his word for 
her uncle-in-law's evil disposition, gave a hasty sketch of his 
conduct to Isabella, and the manner in which Wuthering 
Heights became his property. He could not bear to discourse 
long upon the topic, for though he spoke little of it, he still felt 
the same horror, and detestation of his ancient enemy that had 
occupied his heart ever since Mrs. Linton's death. ** She might 
have been Hving yet, if it had not been for him !" was his con- 
stant, bitter reflection; and, in his eyes, Heathcliff seemed a 
murderer. 

Miss Cathy, conversant with no bad deeds except her own 
slight acts of disobedience, injustice, and passion, rising from hot 
temper, and thoughtlessness, and repented of on the day they^ 
were committed, was amazed at the blackness of roirit that 
could brood on, and cover revenge for years ; and deliberately 
prosecute its plans, without a visitation of remorse. She ap- 
peared so deeply impressed and shocked at this new view of 
human nature— excluded from all her studies and all her ideas 
till now — ^that Mr. Edgar deemed it unnecessary to pursue the 
subject. He merely added, 

** You will know hereafter, darling, why I wish you to avoid 
his house and family— ruow, return to your old employments and 
amusements, and think no more about them !" 

Catherine kissed her father, and sat down quietly to her 
lessons for a couple of hours, according to custom: then she 
accompanied him into ^e grounds, and the whole day passed 
as usual: but in the evening, when she had retired to her room, 
and I went to help her to undress, I found her crying, on her 
knees by the bedside. 

" Oh, fie, silly child !" I exclaimed. " If you had any real 
griefs, you'd be ashamed to waste a tear on this little contra- 
riety. You never had one shadow of substantial sorrow. Miss 
Cadfierino. Si^ipose, for a minute, that master and I were dead, 



IM WUTHEBINO BEI0HT8. 



and you were by yourself in the wcnrld — ^how would you feeA 
then 1 Compare the present occasion with such an affliction aa 
that, and be thankful tor the friends you have, instead of covet- 
ing more.'' 

" I'm not crying for myself, Ellen," she answered, " it's for 
him. He expect^ to see me again to-morrow, and then he'll 
he so disappointed — and he'll wait for me, and I shan't come !" 

** Nonsense !" said I, " do you imagine he has thought as 
much of you as you have of him 1 Hasn't he Hareton for a 
companion 1 Not one in a hundred would weep at losing a 
relation they had just seen twice, for two afternoons. Linton 
will conjecture how it is, and trouble hims^ no further about 
you." 

" But may I not write a note to tell him why I can not 
come 1 she asked rising to her feet. ** And just send those 
books I promised ta lend him. His books are not as nice as 
mine, and he wanted to have them extremely, when I told him 
how interesting they were. May I not, Ellen 1" 

" No, indeed, no indeed !" replied I with decision. " Then 
he would write to you, and there'd never be an end of it. No, 
Miss Catherine, the acquaintance must be dropped entirely — 
so your papa expects, and I shall see that it is done 1" 

'* But how can one little note^" she recommenced, putting 
on an imploring countenance. 

" Silence !'* I interrupted. " We'll not begin with your little 
notes. Gret into bed !" 

She threw at me a very naughty look, so naughty that I 
would not kiss her good-night at first : I covered her up, and 
shut her door, in great displeasure— but, repenting half-way, I 
returned sofily, and lo I there was Miss, standing at the table 
with a bit of blank paper before her, and a pencil in her hand, 
which she guiltily slipped out of sight, on my re-entrance. 

** You'll get nobody to take that, Catherine," I said, " if you 
write it ; and at present I shall put out your candle." 

I set the extinguisher on the flame, receiving as I did so, a 
slap on the hand, and a petulant ** cross thing !" I then quitted 
her again, and she drew the bolt in one of her worst, moat 
peevish humors. 

The letter was finished, and forwarded to its destination by a 
milk-fetcher who came from the village, but that I didn't learn 
till some time afterwards. Weeks passed on, and Cathy recov- 
ered her t^nper, though she grew wondrous fond of stealing off 



WUTHERIN6 ifEIGHTB. 105 



to comers by herself, and often, if I came near her suddenly 
while reading, she would start, and bend over the book, evidently 
desirous to hide it ; and I detected edges of loose paper stidc- 
ing out beyond the leaves. 

She also got a trick of coming down early in the morning, 
and lingering about the kitchen, as if she were expecting the 
arrival of something ; and she had a small drawer in a cabinet 
in the library which she would trifle over for hours, and whose 
key she took special care to remove when she left it. 

One day, as she inspected this drawer, I observed that the 
playthings and trinkets which recently formed its contents, 
were transmuted into bits of folded paper. 

My curiosity and suspicions were roused ; I determined to 
take a peep at her mysterious treasures ; so, at night, as soon 
as she and my master were ssdTe up-stairs, I seardied and 
readily found among my house keys, one that would fit the 
lock. Having opened, I emptied the whole contents into my 
apron, and took them with me to examine at leisure in my own 
chamber. 

Though I could not but suspect, I was still surprised to dis- 
cover that they were a mass of correspondence, daily almost, it 
must have been, from Linton Heathchff, answers to documents 
ft)rwarded by her. The earlier dated were embaiTassed and 
short; gradually, however, they expanded into copious love 
letters, foolish as the age of the writer rendered natural, yet 
with touches, here and there, which I tliou^t wore borrowed 
from a more experienced source. 

Some of them struck me as singularly odd compounds of 
ardor and flatness ; commencing in strong feeling, and conclud- 
ing in the afiected, wordy way that a school-boy might use to a 
flincied, incorporeal sweetheart. Whether they satisfied Cathy, 
1 don't know, but they appeared very worthless trash to me. 
Afker turning over as many as I thought proper, I tied them in 
a handkerchief and set them aside, re-locking the vacant drawer. 

Following her habit, my young lady descended early, and 
visited the kitchen : I watched her go to the door, on the arrival 
of a certain little boy ; and, while the dairy maid filled his can, 
she tucked something into his jacket pocket, and plucked some- 
thing out. I went round by the garden, and laid wait for the 
messenger ; who fought valorously to defend his tnist, and we 
spilled the milk between us; but I succeeded in abstracting the 
epistle ; and threatening serious consequences if he did not look 



IIH) WUTHER'iNtf HEIGHTS. 

sharp home, I remained under the wall, and perused Miss 
Cathy's affectionate composition. It was more simple and 
more eloquent than her cousin's, very pretty and very silly. I 
shook my head, and went meditating into the house. 

The day being wet, she could not divert herself with ram 
blin? about the park ; so, at the conclusion of her morning 
studies, she resorted to the solace of the drawer. Her father 
sat reading at the table ; and I, on purpose, had sought a bit of 
work in some unripped Mnges of the vnndow curtain, keeping 
my eye steadily fixed on her proceedings. 

Never did any bird flying back to a plundered nest which it 
had left brimful of chirping young ones, express more com- 
plete despair in its anguished cries and flutterings, than she by 
her single " Oh !" and the change that transfigured her late 
happy countenance. Mr. Linton looked up. 

** What is the matter, level Have you hurt yourself?" he 
said. 

His tone and look assured her he had not been the discoverer 
of the hoard. 

" No papa — " she gasped. " Ellen ! Ellen ! come up-stairs 
— Fmsickl" 

I obeyed her summons, and accompanied her out. 

"Oh, Ellen! you have got them," she commenced imme- 
diately, dropping on her knees, when we were inclosed alone. 
" Oh, give them to me, and I'll never never do so again ! Don't 
tell papa. You have not told papa, Ellen, say you have not ! 
I've been exceedingly naughty, but I won't do it any more !" 

With a grave severity in my manner, I bid her stand i^p. 

" So," I exclaimed, " Miss Catherine, you are tolerably far 
on, it seems — ^you may well be ashamed of them 1 A fine bun- 
dle of trash you study in your leisure houra, to be sure. WTiy 
it's good enough to be printed ! And what do you suppose the 
master will think, when I display it before himi I haven't 
shown it yet, but you needn't imagine I shall keep your ridicu- 
lous secrets. For shame ! And you must have led the way in 
VTriting such absurdities ; he would not have thought of begin- 
ning, I'm certain." ^ 

"I didn't! I didn't !" sobbed Cathy, fit to break her heart 
" I didn't once think of loving him till — " 

" Loving .'" cried I, as scomfiiUy as I could utter the word. 
" Loving I Did any body ever hear the like ! I might just as 
well talk of loving the miller who comes once a year to buy our 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 197 

corn. Pretty loving, indeed, and both times together you have 
Been Linton hardly £>ur hours, in your life ! Now here is the 
babyish trash. I*m going with it to the library ; and we'll see 
what your father says to such laving.^* 

She sprang at her precious epistles, but I held them above my 
bead ; and then she poured out further frantic entreaties that I 
would bum them— do any thing rather than show them. And 
being really fully as inclined to laugh as scold, for I esteemed 
it aU girlish vanity, I at length, relented in a measure, and 
asked, 

^If I consent to bum them, will you promise faithfully, 
neither to send, nor receive a letter again, nor a book — ^for I 
perceive you have sent him books — ^nor locks of hair, nor rings, 
nor playthings !" 

" We don't send playthings!" cried Catherine, her pride over 
coming her shame. 

" Nor any thing at aU, then, my lady !" I said. '* Unless you 
vrill, here I go." 

" I promise, Ellen !" she cried, catching my dress. " Oh, put 
them m the fire, do, do !" « 

But when I proceeded to open the place with the' poker, the 
sacrifice was too painful to be borne. She earnestly supplicated 
that I would spare her one or two. 

" One or two, Ellen, to keep for Linton's sake !" 

I unknotted the handkerchief, and commenced dropping them 
in from an angle, and the flame curled up the chimney. 

** I will have one, you cruel vrretch !" she screamed, darting 
her hand into the fire, and drawing forth some half-consumed 
fragments, at the expense of her fingers. 

" Very well — and I will have some to exhibit to papa !" I 
answered, shaking back the rest into the bundle, and turning 
anew to the door. 

She emptied her blackened pieces into the flames, and mo- 
tioned me to finish the immolation. It was done ; I stirred up 
the ashes, and interred them under a shovelfiil of coals ; and 
she mutely, and with a sense of intense injury^ retired to her 
private apartment. I descended to tell my master that the 
^oung lady's qualm of sickness was almost gone, but I judged 
It best for her to lie down a while. 

She wouldn't dine ; but she re-appeared at tea, pale and red 
about the eyes, and marvelously subdued in outward aspect. 

Next morning I answered the letter by a slip of paper in- 



IM WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 



scribed, ''Master Heatbcliffis requested to send no more notes 
to Miss Linton, as she will not receive tbem." And^ thence- 
forth the little boy came with vacant pockets. 



CHAPTER XXIL 

Summer drew to an end, and early autumn; it was past 
Michaelmas, but the harvest was late ^at year, and a few of 
our fields were still uncleared. Mr. Linton and his daughter 
would frequently walk out among the reapers ; at the carrying 
of the last sheaves, they stayed ^ dusk, and the evening hap- 
pening to be chill and d£imp, my master caught a bad cold, that, 
settling obstinately on his lungs, confined him indoors through- 
out the whole of the winter, nearly without intemnssion. 

Poor Cathy, frightened from her little romance, had been 
considerably sadder and duller since its abandonment ; and her 
father insisted on her reading less, and taking more exercise. 
She had his companionship no longer ; I esteemed it a duty to 
supply its lack, as much as possible, with mine— an inefficient 
substitute, for I could only spare two or three hours, from my 
numerous diurnal occupations, to follow her footsteps, and then 
my society was obviously less desirable than his. 

On an afternoon in October, or the beginning of November, 
a fresh watery afi:emoon, when the turf and paths were rustling 
with moist, withered leaves, and the cold, blue sky was half 
hidden by clouds, dark gray streamers, rapidly mounting from 
the west, and boding abundant rain, I requested my young lady 
to forego her ramble, because I was certain of showers. She 
refiised, and I unwillingly donned a cloak, and took my um- 
brella to accompany her on a stroll to the bottom of the park— * 
a formal walk which she generally affected if low-spirited ; and 
that she invariably was when Mr. Edgar had been worse than 
ordinary-^a thing never known from his confession, but guessed 
bo^ by her and me from his increased silence, and the melan- 
chti»ly of his countenance. 

*'She went sadly on ; there was no running or bounding now, 
tl;>ough the chill ynnd might well have tempted her to a race. 
And ofi;en, fronr the side of my eye, I could detect her raising a 



WUTBERINO HEIOMTS. 190 



band, and bnisfauig aomething off her cheek* I gazed round 
for a means of diveiting her thoughts. On one side of the it>ad 
rose a high, rough hank, where hasels and stunted oaks, with 
their roots half exposed, held uncertain tenure; the soil was 
too loose for the latter, and strong winds had blown some neady 
borizontaL In summer, Miss Catherine delighted to climb along 
these trunks, and sit in the branches, swinging twenty feet above 
the eround; and I, pleased with her agility^ and her light, 
childish heart, still considered it proper to scold every time I 
caught her at such an elevation, but so that she knew there 
was no nece^ity for descending. From dinner to tea she would 
lie in her breeze-rocked cradle, doing nothing except singing 
old songs — my nursery lore^to herself or watching the birds, 
joint tenants, feed and entice their young ones to fly, or nestling 
with closed lids, half thinking, half dreaming, happier than 
words can express. 

" Look, miss !" I exclaimed, pointing to a nook under the 
roots of one twisted tree ; '< winter is not here yet. There's a 
little flower up yonder, the last bud firom the multitude of blue- 
bells that clouded those turf steps in July with a lilac mist 
Will you clamber up, and pluck it to show to papa %'* 

Cathy stared a long time at the lonely blossom trembling in 
its earthy shelter, and repHed at length*^ 

** No, I'll not touch it ; but it looks melandioly, does it not, 
Ellen r 

" Yes," I observed, ** about as starved and sackless as you-^ 
your cheeks are bloodless ; let us take hold of hands and run 
You're so slow, I dare say I shall keep up with you." 

** No," she repeated, and continued sauntering on, pausing at 
intervals to muse over a bit of moss, or a tuft of blanched grass, 
or a fungus spreading its bright orange among the heaps of 
brown foliage ; and, ever and anon, her hand was lifted to her 
averted face. 

" Catherine, why are you crying, love V* I asked, approach- 
ing and putting my arm over her shoulder. "You must'nt 
cry because papa has a cold ; be thankf^il that it is nothing 
worse*" , 

8he now put no further restraint on her tears ; her breath 
was stifled by sobs. 

" Oh, it tvill be something worse," she said. " And what shall 
I do when papa and you leave me, and I am by myself? I 
can't forget your words, Ellen, they are always in my ear. 



300 WUT BERING HEIOHTtf. 



How life will be changedy how dreary the world will be, when 
papa and you are dead !" 

" None can tell whether you won't die before us/* I replied* 
** It's wrong to anticipate evil — we'll hope there are years and 
years to come before any of us go ; master is young, and I am 
strong, and hardly forty-five. My mother lived till eighty, a 
canty dame to the last. And suppose Mr. Linton were Spared 
till he saw sixty, that would be more yeara than you have 
counted, miss. And would it not be foolish to mourn a calamity 
above twenty years beforehand V* 

" But aunt Isabella was younger than papa," she remarked, 
gazing up with timid hope to seek further consolation. 

** Aunt Isabella had not you and me to nurse her," I replied. 
** She wasn't as happy as master ; she hadn't as much to live 
for. All you need do is to wait well on your father, and cheer 
him by letting him see you cheerful ; and avoid giving him anx- 
iety on any subject — mind that, Cathy ! I'll not disguise but 
you might kill him, if you were wild and reckless, and cherish- 
ed a foolish, fanciful afifection for the son of a person who would 
be glad to have him in his grave, and allowed him to discover 
that you fretted over the separation he has judged it expedi^it 
to make." 

" I fret about nothing on earth except papa's illness," answer- 
ed my companion. **I care for nothing in comparison with 
papa. And I'll never — never — Oh, never, while I have my 
senses, do an act, or say a word to vex him. I love him better 
than myself, Ellen ; and I know it by this — I pray every night 
that I may live after him ; because I would rather be miserable 
than that he should be— that proves I love him better than my- 
self." 

" Good words," I replied. " But deeds must prove it also ; 
and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions 
formed in the hour of fear." 

As we talked, we neared a door that opened on the road ; and 
my young lady, lightening into sunshine again, climbed up, and 
seated herself on the top of the wall, reaching over to gather 
some hips that bloomed scarlet on the summit branches of the 
wild rose trees, shadowing the highway side ; the lower fruit 
had disappeared, but only birds could touch the upper, except 
from C amy's present station. 

In stretching to^puU them, her hat fell o£f; and as the door 
was locked, she proposed scrambling down to recover it. I bid 



WUTHBEING HEIGHTS. 201 

^ ♦ ^ 

ber be cautious lest sbe got a fall, and sbe nimbly disap- 
peared. 

But the return was no such easy matter; the stones were 
smooth and neatly cemented, and the rosebushes and blackberry 
stragglers could yield no assistance in re-^ascending. I, like a 
fool, didn't recollect that till I heard her laughing, and exclaim- 
ing— 

" Ellen ! you'll have to fetch the key, or else I must run round 
to the porter's lodge. I can't scale the ramparts on this side !" 

" Stay where you are," I answered ; " I have my bundle of 
keys in my pocket ; perhaps I may manage to open it ; if not, 
I'll go." 

Catherine amused herself with dancing to and fro before the 
door, while I tried all the large keys in succession. I had ap- 
plied the last, and found that none would do ; so, repeating my 
desire that she would remain there, I was about to hurry home 
as fast as I could, when an approaching sound arrested me. It 
was the trot of a horse ; Cathy's dance stopped, and in a minute 
the horse stopped also. 

" Who is that V* I whispered. 

" Ellen, I wish you could open the door," whispered back my 
companion, anxiously. 

'* Ho, Miss Linton 1" cried a deep voice (the rider's). " I'm 
glad to meet you. Don't be in haste to enter, for I have an ex- 
planation to ask and obtain." 

" I shan't speak to you, Mr. Heathcliff !" answered Catherine. 
" Papa says you are a wicked man, and you hate both him and 
me ; and Ellen says the same." 

" That is nothing to the purpose," said Heathcliff. (He it 
was.) " I don't hate my son, I suppose, and it is concerning 
him that I demand your attention. Yes ! you have cause to 
blush. Two or three months since, were you not in the habit 
of writing to Linton 1 — making love in play, eh 1 You deseiTed, 
both of you, flogging for that ! You especially, the elder, and 
less sensitive, as it turns out. I've got your letters, and if you 
give me any pertness, I'll send them to your father. I presume 
you grew weary of the amusement, and dropped it, didn't you ? 
Well, you dropped Linton with it, into a Slough of Despond* 
Ho was in earnest — ^in love— really. As true as I live, he's 
dying for you — ^breaking his heart at your fickleness, not figura 
tively, but actually. Though Hareton has made him a standing 
jest for six weeks, and I have used more serious measures, and 

I* 



202 WUTHERING HEI6HT8. 

attempted to fiigfaten him out of his idiocy, he gets worse daily, 
and he'll be under the sod before summer, unless you restore 
him!" 

** How can you lie so glarin^y to the poor child !" I called 
fixMn the inside. " Pray ride on ! How can you deliberately 
get up such paltry &lsehoods % Miss Cathy, I'll knock the lock 
off with a stone. You won't believe that vile nonsense. You 
can feel in yourself, it is impossible that a person should die fer 
love of a stranger." 

" I was not aware there were eaves-droppers," muttered the 
detected villain. " Worthy Mrs. Dean, I like you, but I don't 
like your double dealing," he added, aloud. " How could you 
lie so glaringly as to B&rm I hated the * poor child V And in- 
vent buebear stories to terrify her from my doornstones 1 Oath- 
orine Linton (the very name warms me), my bonny lass, I shaU 
be from home all this week — go and see if I have not spoken 
truth; do— there's a darling! Just imagine your fadier in my 
place, and Linton in yours ; then think how you would value 
your careless lover, if he refused to stir a step to comfort you, 
when your father himself entreated him ; and don't, from pure 
stupidky, fall into the same error. I swear, on my salvation, 
he's going to his grave, and none but you can save him 1" 

The lock gave way, and I issued out. 

" I swear Linton is dying," rq^eated HeathcHff, looking hard 
at me. '' And grief and disappointment are hastening his deatii. 
Nelly, if you won't let her go, you can walk over yourself. But 
I shaU not return till this time next week ; and I think your 
master himself would scarcely object to her visiting her cousin !" 

" Come in," said I taking Cathy by the arm, and half forcing 
her to re-enter, for she lingered, viewing, with troubled eyes, 
tl^ features of the speaker, too stem to express his inward 
deceit. 

He pushed his horse close, and, bending down, observed — 

" Miss Catherine, I'll own to you that I have little patience 
with Linton, and Hareton and Joseph have less. I'll own that 
he's with a harsh set. He pines for kindness as well as love, 
and a kind word fixmi you would be his best medicine. Don't 
mind Mrs. Dean's cruel cautions, but be generous, and contiive 
to see him. He dreams of you day and night, and can not be 
persuaded that you don't hate him, since you neither write nor 
call." 

I closed the door, and rolled a stone to assist the loosened lock 



WUTHERIN« HEIGHTS. M2 

in holding it ; and spreading my umbrella, I drew my cbargo 
undeiiieath, for the rain began to drive through the moaning 
branches of the trees, and warned us to avoid delay. 

Our hurry prevented any comment on the encoanter with 
Heathcliff, as we stretdied toward home ; bnt I divined instinct- 
ively that Catherine's heart was clouded now in double dark- 
ness. Her features were so sad, they did not seem hers : she 
evidently regarded what she had heara as every syllable true. 

The master had retired to rest before we came in. Cathy 
stole to his room to inquire how he was ; he had fallen asleep. 
She i-etumed, and asked me to sit vrith her in the library. We 
Ux^L our tea together ; and afterward she lay down on the rug, 
and told roe not to talk, for she was weary. 

I got a book, and pretended to read. As soon as she sup- 
posed me ab8od)ed m my occupation, she recommenced her 
silent weeping t it appeared, at preset her favorite diversion. 
I suffiBred her to enjoy it a while ; then I expostulated, deriding 
and ridiculing all Mr. Heathcliff^s assertions about his son, as 
if I were certain she would coincide. Alas I I hadn't skill to 
counteract the effect his account had produced — ^it was just what 
he intended. 

" You may be right, Ellen," she answered ; " but I shall never ^ 
feel at ease till I know — and I must tell Linton it is not my fault 
that I don't write, and convince him that I shall not change." 

What use were anger and protestations against her silly cre- 
dulity ? We parted that night hostile ; but next day beheld me 
on the road to Wuthering Heights, by the side of my vfriUfiil 
young mistress's pony, I couldn't bear to witness her sorrow 
— to see her pale, dejected countenance and heavy eyes — and I 
yielded in the faint hope that Linton himself might prove, by 
his reception of us, how little of the tale was founded on hct. 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

The rainy night had ushered in a misty morning — ^half frost, 
half drizzle — and temporary brookd" crossed our path, gurgling 
from the uplands. My feet were thoroughly wetted ; I was 
cross and low, exactly the humor suited for making the most of 
these disagreeable things. We entered the farmhouse by the 



204 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

Idtchen way, to ascertain ^wliether Mr. Heathcliff were really 
absent, because I put slight faith in his own affimiation. 

Joseph seemed sitting alone, in a sort of elysium, beside a 
roaring fire, a quart of de on the table near him, bristling with 
large pieces of toactted oat caike, and his black, short pipe in his 
mouth. Catherine ran to the hearth to warm herself I asked 
if the master were in 1 My question remained so long unan- 
swered, that I thought the old man had grown dea^ and I re- 
peated it louder. 

« Na — ay !" he snarled, or rather screamed through his nose. 
" Na — ay I yah muh goa back whear yah coom frough." 

" Joseph,'' cried a peevish voice, simultaneously with me, from 
the inner room, " how often am I to call you 1 There are only 
a few red ashes now. Joseph ! come this moment." 

Vigorous pu£&,' and a resolute stare into the grate declared 
he had no ear for this appeaL The housekeeper and Hareton 
were invisible— one gone on an errand, and the other at his 
work, probably. We knew Linton's tones, and entered. 

'' Oh, I hope you'll die in a garret, starved to death 1" said 
the boy, mistaking our approach for that of his negligent at- 
tendant. 

He stopped on observing his error ; his cousin flew to him. 
** Is that you. Miss Linton V* he said, raising his head from 
the arm of the great chair in which he reclined. " No— ^on't 
kiss me. It takes my breath — dear me ! Papa said you would 
call," continued he, after recovering a little from Catherine's 
embrace, while she stood by, looking yerj contrite. " Will 
you shut the door, if you please 1 — you left it open, and those— 
those detestable creatures won't bring coals to the fire. It's so 
cold !" 

I stirred up the cinders, and fetched a scutdeful myself. The 
invalid complained of being covered with ashes; but he had a 
tiresome cough, and looked feverish and ill, so I did not rebuke 
hb temper. 

" Well, Linton," murmmed Catherine, when his corrugated 
brow relaxed. ** Are you glad to see me 1 Can I do you any 
goodr' 

" Why didn't you come before V* he said. " You should have 
come, instead of writing. It tired me dreadfully writing those 
long letters. I'd far rather have talked to you. Now, I can 
neither bear to talk, nor any thing else. I wonder where Zillah 
is ! Will you (looking at me) step into the kitchen and see ]" 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 205 



I bad received no thanks for my other service ; and being un- 
willing to run to and fro at his behest, I replied—- 

** Nobody is out there but Joseph." 

''I want to drink/' he exclaimed, fretfully turning away. 
** Zillah is constantly gadding oflT to Gimmerton since papa went. 
It's miserable! And I'm obliged to come down here-— they 
resolved never to hear me up stairs." 

*' Is your father attentive to you, Master HeathcHff]" I asked, 
perceiving Catherine to be checked in her fiiendly advances. 

" Attentive 1 He makes them a little more attentive, at least," 
be cried. *' The wretches ! Do you know, Miss Linton, that 
brute Hareton laughs at me 1 I hate him — ^indeed> I hate them 
all — ^they are odious beings." 

Cathy began searching for some water; she lighted on a 
pitcher in the dresser, filled a tumbler, and brought it. He bid 
her add a spoonful of wine from a bottle on the table ; and, hav- 
ing swallowed a small portion, appeared more tranquil, and said 
she was very kind. 

" And are you glad to see me 1" asked she, reiterating her 
^ormer question, and pleased to detect the faint dawn of a smile. 

" Yes, I am. It's something new to hear a voice like yours !" 
he replied, ** but I have been vexed, because you wouldn't come. 
And papa swore it was owing to me ; he called me a pitifril, 
shuffling, worthless thing, and said you despised me ; and if he 
had been in my place he would be more the master of the 
Grange than your father by this time. But you don't despise 
me, do you Miss — " 

** I wish you would say Catherine, or Cathy!" interrupted my 
young lady. ** Despise you I No ! Next to papa, and Ellen, 
I love you better than any body living. I don't love Mr. Heath- 
cliff, though ; and I dare not come when he returns ; will he stay 
away many days 1" 

" Not many :" answered Linton, but he goes to the moors 
frequently, since the shooting season commenced, and you might 
spend an hour or two with me in his absence. Do say you wUl ! 
I think I should not be peevish with you ; you'd not provoke 
me, and you'd always be ready to help me, wouldn't you ]" 

" Yes," said Catheiine, strolung his long, sofb hair ; " if I could 
only get papa's consent, I'd spend half my time with you. Pretty 
Linton ! I wish you were my brother !" 

" And then you would like me as well as your father ]" ob- 
served he more cheerfully. '* But papa says you would love me 



906 WUTHEKIN6 HEIGHTS. 



better than him and all the world, if you were my wife— «o I'd 
rather you were that !*' 

" No ! I should never love any body better than papa," she 
returned gravely. " And people hate their wives, sometimes ; 
but not their asters and brothers, and if you were the latter, you 
would live with us, and papa would be as fond of you, as he is 
of me." 

Linton denied that people ever hated their wives ; but Cathy 
aflinned they did, and in her wisdom, instanced his own father's 
aversion to her aunt. I endeavored to stop her thoughtless 
tongue. I couldn't succeed, till every thing she knew was out. 
Master HeathclifiT, much irritated, asserted her relation was false. 

*' Papa told me ; and papa does not tell falsehoods !" she an- 
swered, pertly. 

'' My papa scorns yours T cried Linton. ** He calls him a 
sneaking fool !" 

*' Yours is a viricked man," retorted Catherine, " and you are 
very naughty to dare to repeat what he says. He must be 
wicked, to have made aunt Isabella leave him as ^hedidT' 

"She didn't leave him," said the boy. ''You shaa-t contra- 
dict me !" 

" She did !" cried my young lady. 

** Well I'll tell you something !" said Linton. " Your mother 
hated your father; now then." 

'' Qh !" exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue. 

*' And she loved mine !" added he. 

" You little Uar ! I hate you now," she panted, and her face 
grew red with passion. 

'' She did ! she did I" sang Linton, sinking into the recess of 
his chair, and leaning back his head to enjoy the agitation of the 
other disputant, who stood belmid. 

" Hush, Master Heathcliff !" I said, " that's your father's tale 
too, I suppose." 

" It isn't — you hold your tongue I" he answered, " she did, 
she did, Catherine, she did, she did !" 

Cathy, beside herself, gave the chair a violent push, and 
caused him to fall against one arm. He was immediately seized 
by a suffocating cough, that soon ended his triumph. It lasted 
so long that it ^ghtened even me. As to his cousin, she wept 
with all her might, aghast at the mischief she had done, though 
she said nothing. I held him till the fit exhausted itself. Then 
he thrust me away, and leaned his head down, silently. Cathe- 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 207 

line quelled her lamentations also^ took a seat opposite, and 
looked solemnly into the fire. 

** How do you feel now, Master Heathcliff/' I inquired, after 
waiting ten minutes. 

" I wish ske felt as I do,'' he replied, ** spiteful, cruel thing I 
Hareton never touches me, he never struck me in his life. And 
I was better to-day — and there" — his voice died in a whimper. 

"I didn't strike you!" mattered Cathy, chewing her lip to 
prevent another burst of emotion. 

He sighed and moaned like one under great suffering ; and 
kept it up for a quarter of an hour, on purpose to distress his 
cousin, apparently, for whenever he caught a stilled sob irom 
her, he put renewed pain and pathos into the inflections of his 
voice. 

** I'm sorry I hurt you, Linton 1" she said at length, racked 
beyond endurance. ** But I couldn't have been hurt by that 
little push; and I had no idea that you could, either — ^you're 
not much, are you, Linton 1 Don't let me go home, thinking 
I've done you barm ! answer, speak to me." 

" I can't speak to you," be murmured, " you've hurt me so 
that I shall lie awake all night, choking with this cough. If you 
had it you'd know what it was — but you*U be comfortably 
asleep, while I'm in ag(my — and nobody near me! I wonder 
how you would like to pass those fearful nights !" And he be- 
gan to wail aknid for very pity of himself. 

** Since you are in the habit of passing dreadful nights," I 
said, " it won't be Miss who spoils your ease ; you'd be the 
same, had she never come. However, she shall not disturb you 
again — and perhaps you'll get quieter when we leave you." 

" Must I go ]" asked €atherine dolefully, bending over him. 
" Do you want me to go, Linton V* 

" You can't alter what you've done ]" he replied pettishly, 
shrinking from ^r, ** unless you alter it for the worse, by teas- 
ing me into a fever P' 

" Well, theii I must go ]" she repeated. 

" Let me alone, at least," said he ; "I can't bear your talk 

She lingered, and resisted my persuasions to departure, a 
tiresome while, but as he neither looked up nor spoke, she 
finally made a movement to the door, and I followed. We 
were recalled by a scream. Linton had slid from his seat upon 
the hearthstone, and lay writhing in the mere perverseness of an 



308 WUTEERINO HJBI6HTS. 

indulged plague of a child, determined to be as grievous and 
harassing as it can. I thoroughly gauged his disposition from 
his behavior, and b&w at once it vtroiild be folly to attempt hu- 
moring him. Not BO my companion, she ran back in terror, 
knelt down, and cried, and soothed, and entreated, till he grew 
quiet from lack of breath, by no means from compunction at 
distressing her. 

** I shsdl lift him upon the settle," I said, ** and he may loU 
about as he pleases ; we can't stop to watch him. I hope you 
are satisfied. Miss Cathy, that you are not the person to benefit 
him, and that his condition of health is not occasioned by at« 
tachment to you. Now then, there he is! Come away; as 
soon as he knows there is nobody by to care for his nonsense, 
he'n be glad to lie still r 

She placed a cushion under his head, and offered him some 
water, he rejected the latter, and tossed uneasily on the former, 
as if it were a stone, or a block of wood. She tried to put it 
more comfortably. 

" 1 can't do with that," he said, " it's not high enough I" 

Catherine brought another to lay above it. 

" That's too high !" murmured the provoking thing. 

" How must I arrange it, then 1" she asked, despairingly. 

He twined himself up to her, as she half knelt by the settle, 
and converted her shoulder into a support. 

" No, that won't do !" I said. " You'll be content with the 
cushion. Master Heathcliff ! Miss has wasted too much time 
on you already ; we can not remain five minutes longer." 

" Yes, yes, we can !" replied Cathy. " He's good and pa- 
tient, now. He's beginning to think I shall have fai* greater 
misery than he yn\\ to-night, if I believe he is the worse for my 
visit ; and then I dare not come again. Tell the truth about it, 
Linton — ^for 1 mustn't come if I have hurt you." 

" You must come to cure me," he answered. " You ought 
to come because you have hurt me. You know you have, ex- 
tremely ! I was not as ill when you entered as I' am at present 
— wasir 

'* But you've made yourself ill by crying, and being in a pas- 
sion." 

"I didn't do it all," said his cousin. "However, we'll be 
friends now. And you want me — ^you would wish to see me 
sometimes, really V* 

" I told you I did !" he replied impatiently. " Sit on the set- 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 209 

Ue, and let me lean on your knee. That's as mamma used to 
do, whole afbemoons together. Sit quite still, and don't talk, 
but you may sing a song if you can sing, or you may say a nice 
long interesting ballad— one of those you promised to teach 
me, or a story — I'd rather have a ballad though ; begin." 

Catherine repeated the longest she could remember. Th^ 
employment pleased both mightily. L inton would have another, 
and afier that another, notwithstanding my strenuous objections ; 
and so they went on until the clock struck twelve^ and we heard 
Hareton in the court, returning for his dinner. 

" And to-morrow, Catherine ; will you be here to-morrow V* 
asked young Heathcliff^ holding her frock, as she rose reluc- 
tantly. 

" No !" I answered, " nor next day neither." She, however, 
gave a different response, evidently, for his forehead cleared, as 
she stooped, and whispered in his ear. 

" You won't go to-morrow, recollect. Miss !" 1 commenced, 
when we were out of the house. " You are not dreaming of it, 
are you V* 

She smiled. 

" Oh, I'll take good care !" 1 continued, " I'll have that lock 
mended, and you can escape by no way else." 

** I can get over the wall," she said, laughing. " The Grange 
is not a prison, Ellen, and you are not my jailer. And besides, 
I'm almost seventeen. I'm a woman — and I'm certain Linton 
would recover quickly if he had me to look after him. I'm 
older than he is, you know, and wiser, less childish, am I not 1 
And he'll soon do as I direct him, with some slight coaxing. 
He's a pretty little darling when he's good. I'd make such a 
pet of him, if he were mine. We should never quarrel, should 
we, after we were used to each other 1 Don't you like him, <• 
Ellen 1" 

** Like him 1" I exclaimed. " The worst tenipered bit of a 
sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens! Happily, as Mr. 
Heathcliff conjectured, he'll not win twenty ! I doubt whether 
he'll see spring indeed — and small loss to his family, whenever 
he drops off; and lucky it is for us that his father took him. 
The kmder he was treated, the more tedious and selfish he'd 
be ! I'm glad you have no chance of having him for a husband 
Miss Catherine !" 

My companion waxed serious at hearing this speech. To 
speak of his death so regardlessly wounded her feeling^s. 



210 WUTH EKING HEIGHTS. 



'< He's younger than I," she answered, after a protracted 
pause of meditation, '* and he ought to live the longest, he will- 
he must live as long as I do. He's as strong now as when he 
first came into the north, I'm positive of that ! It's only a cold 
that ails him, the same as papa has. You say papa will get 
better, and why shouldn't he 1" 

" Well, well," I cried, " after all, we needn't trouble om> 
selves ; Ibr listeu. Miss, and ndnd, I'll keep my word. If you 
attempt goin^ to Wuthering Heights again, with, or without 
me, I shall imorm Mr. Linton, and unless he allow it, the inti- 
macy with your cousin must not be revived." 

" It has been revived !" muttered Cathy, sulkily. 

" Must not be continued, then V* 1 said. 

** We'll see !" was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leav- 
ing me to toil in the rear. 

We both reached home before our dinner-time; my mas- 
ter supposed we had been wandering through the park, and 
therefore he demanded no explanation of our absence. As 
soon as I entered, I hastened to change my soaked shoes and 
stockings ; but sitting such a while at the Heights, had done 
the mischief. On the succeeding morning I was laid up ; and 
during three weeks I remained incapacitated for attending to 
my duties — a calamity never experienced prior to that period, 
and never, I am thankftil to say, since. 

My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait 
on me, and cheer my solitude ; the confinement brought me 
exceedingly low. It is wearisome to a stirring active body- 
but few have slighter reasons for complaint than I had. The 
moment Catherine left Mr. Linton's room, she appeared at my 
bedside. Her day was divided between us; no amusement 
usurped a minute ; she neglected her meals, her studies, and 
her play ; and she was the fondest nurse that ever watcbed ; 
she must have had a warm heart, when she loved her father 
so, to give so much to me ! I said her days were divided be- 
tween us ; but the master retired early, and I generally needed 
nothing after six o'clock, thus her evening was her own. 

Poor thing, I never considered what she did with herself 
after tea. Ajod though frequently, when she looked in to bid 
me good night I remarked a fresh color in her cheeks, and a 
pinkness over her slender fingers ; instead of fancying ibe hue 
Dorrowed ft'om a cold ride across the moors, I laid it to thu 
charge of a hot fire in the library. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

At the close of three weeks, I was able to quit my chamber, 
and move about the house. And on the first occasion of my sit- 
ting up in the evenin?, I asked Catherine to read to me, because 
my eyes were weak. We were in the library, the master 
having gone to bed ; she consented, rather unwillingly, I fan- 
cied; and imagining my sort of books did not suit her, I bid 
her please herself in the choice of what she perused. 

She selected one of her own favorites, and got forward stead-, 
Uy about an hour ; then came«frequent questions. 

" Ellen, are you not tired ] Hadn't you better lie down now 1 
You'll be sick^ keeping up so long, Ellen." 

" No, no, dear, I'm not tired," I returned, continually. 

Perceiving me immovable, she essayed another method of 
showing her disrelish for her occupation. It changed to yawn- 
ing, and stretching, and — 

" Ellen, I'm tired." 

*' Give over then, and talk," I answered. 

That was worse ; she fretted and sighed, and looked at her 
watch till eight ; and finally went to her room, completely over- 
done with sleep, judging by her peevish, heavy look, and the 
constant rubbing she inflicted on her eyes. 

The following night she seemed more impatient still ; and on 
the third she complained of a head-ache, and left me. I thought 
her conduct odd ; and having I'emained alone a long while, I 
resolved on going and inquiring whether she were better, and 
asking her to come and lie on the so&, instead of up-stairs, in 
the dark. 

No Catherine could I discover np-stairs, and none below. 
The servants affirmed they had not seen her. I listened at Mr. 
Edgar's door— all was silence. I returned to her apartment, 
extinguished my candle, and seated myself in the window. 

The moon shone bright; a sprinkling of snow covered the 
ground, and I reflected that she might, possibly, have taken it 
into her head to walk about the garden, for refreshment. I did 
detect a figure creeping along the inner fence of the park ; but 
it was not my young mistress ; on its emerging into the light, I 



212 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 



reGOG;iiized one of the grooms. He stood a considerable period 
viewmg the carriage road through the grounds; then started 
off at a brisk pace, as if he had detected something, and reap- 
peared, presently, leading Miss's pony ; and there she was, just 
dismounted, and walking by its side. 

The man took his charge stealthily across the grass toward 
the stable. Cathy entered by the casement window of the draw- 
ing-room, and glided noiselessly up to where I awaited her. 
She put the door gently to, slipped off her snowy shoes, untied 
her hat, and was proceeding, unconscious of my espionage, to 
lay aside her mantle, when I suddenly rose, and revealed my- 
self. The surprise petrified her an instant ; she uttered an in- 
articulate exclamation, and stood fixed. 

" My dear Miss Catherine," I began, too vividly impressed 
by her recent kindness to break into a scold, ** where have you 
been riding at this hour ] And now why should you try to de- 
ceive me, by telling a tale. Where have you been 1 Speak !" 

" To the bottom of the park," she stammei'ed. " I didn't tell 
a tale." 

" And nowhere else 1" I demanded. 

" No," was the muttered reply. 

" Oh, Catherine," I cried sorrowfiilly. ** You know you have 
been doing wrong, or you wouldn't be driven to uttering an un- 
truth to me. That does grieve me. I'd rather be three months 
ill, than hear you firame a deliberate lie." 

She sprang forward, and bursting into tears, threw her arms 
round my neck. 

" Well Ellen, I'm so afraid of your being angry," she said. 
" Promise not to be angry, and you shall know the very truth. 
I hate to hide." 

We sat down in the window-seat ; I assured her I would not 
scold, whatever her secret might be, and I guessed it, of course; 
so she commenced — 

" I've been to Wuthering Heights, Ellen, and I've never 
missed going a day since you fell ill, except thrice before, and 
twice after you left your room. I gave Michael books and pic- 
tures to prepare Minny every evening, arid to put her back in 
the stable ; you mustn't scold /^m either, mind. I was at the 
Heights by half-past six, and generally stayed till half-past 
eight, and then galloped home. It was not to amuse myself 
that I went; I was often wretched all the time. Now and then, 
1 was happy, once in a week perhaps. At first, I expected 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 213 

there would be sad work persuading you to let me keep my 
word to Linton, for I had engaged to call again next day, when 
we quitted him ; but, as you staid up-stairs on the mon*ow, I 
escaped that trouble; and while Michael was refastening the 
lock of the park door in the afternoon, I got possession of 
the key, and told him how my cousin wished me to visit him, 
because he was sick, and couldn't come to the Grange; and 
how papa would object to my going. And then 1 negotiated 
with him about the pony. He is fond of reading, and he thinks 
of leaving soon to get married, so he offered, if I would lend him 
books out of the library, to do what I wished ; but I preferred 
giving him my own, and t^at satisfied him better. 

" On my second visit, Linton seemed in lively spirits ; and 
Zillah, that is their housekeeper, made us a clean room, and a 
good fire, and told us that as Joseph was out at a prayer-meet- 
ing, and Hareton was off with his dogs, robbing our woods of 
pheasants, as I heard afterward, we might do what we liked. 

" She brought me some warm wine and gingerbread ; and ap- 
peared exceedingly good-natured ; and Linton sat in the arm- 
chair, and I in the little rocking chair, on the hearthstone, and 
we laughed and talked so merrily, and found so much to say ; 
we planned where we would go, and what we would do in 
summer. I needn't repeat that, because you would call it silly. 

"One time, however, we were near quarreling. He said 
the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was lying 
from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of 
the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the 
bloom, and the larks singing high up over head, and the blue 
sky, and bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly. That was 
his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness — mine was rocking 
in a rustling green tree, vrith a west wind blowing, and bright, 
white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but 
throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out 
music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken 
into cool dusky dells ; but close by great swells of long grass 
undulating in waves to the breeze ; and woods and sounding 
water, and the whole world awake and wild vrith joy. He 
wanted all to lie in an ecstacy of peace ; I wanted all to sparkle, 
and dance in a glorious jubUee. 

" 1 said his heaven would be only half alive, and he said mine 
would be drunk ; I said I should fall asleep in his, and he said 
he could not breathe in mine, and began to gi-ow very snappish. 



314 WUTHBEINO HEIGHTS. 

At last, we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather 
came ; and then we kissed each other and were friends. After 
sitting still an hour, I looked at the great room with its smooth, 
nncarpeted floor ; and thought how nice it would be to play in^ 
if we i-emoved the table; and I asked Linton to callZiUah in to 
help us— and we'd have a game at blind-man's buff — she should 
try to catch us — you used to, you know, Ellen. He wouldn't ; 
there was no pleasure in it, he said ; but he consented to play 
at ball with me. We found two, in a cupboard, among a heap 
of old toys ; tops, and hoops, and battledoors, and shuttlecocks^ 
One was marked C, and the other H.; I wished to have the 
C, because that stood for Cathei-ine, and the H. might be for 
Heathcliff, his name ; but the bran came out of H., and Linton 
didn't like it 

** I beat him constantly ; and he got cross again, and coughed, 
and returned to his chair: that night, though, he easily recov- 
ered his good humor ; he was charmed with two or three pretty 
songs — your songs, Ellen ; and when I was obliged to go, he 
begged and entreated me to come the following evening, and I 
promised. 

" Minny and I went flying home, as light as air : and I 
dreamed of Wuthering Heights, and my sweet, darling cousin, 
till morning. 

" On the morrow I was sad ; partly because you were poorly, 
and partly that I wished my father knew and approved of my 
excursions : but it was beautiful moonlight after tea ; and, as I 
rode on, the gloom cleared. 

" I shall have another happy evening, I thought to myseM^ 
and what delights me more, my pretty Linton will. 

"I trotted up their garden, and was turning round to the 
back, when that fellow Eamshaw met me, took my bridle, and 
bid me go in by the front entrance. He patted Minny's neck, 
and said she was a bonny beast, and appeared as if he wanted 
me to speak to him. I only told him to leave my horse alone, 
or else it would kick him. He answered in his vulgar accent. 

** * It wouldn't do mitch hurt if it did ;' and surveyed its legs 
with a smile. 

" I was half inclined to make it try ; however, he moved off 
to open the door, and, as he raised the latch, he looked up to 
the inscription above, and said, with a stupid mixture of awk- 
wardness and elation : 

" * Miss Catherine I I can read yon, nah.' 



WUTH£RING HEIGHTS. 315 



" * Wonderful,' I exclaimed. * Pray let us hear you— ryou 
mre grown clever !' 

" He spelled, and drawled over by syllables, the name- 

'^ ' Hareton Eamshaw/ 

" * And the figures V 1 cried, encouragingly, perceiving that 
he came to a dead halt. 

*• * I can not tell them yet,' he answered. 

'' ' Oh, you dunce !' " I said, laughing heartily at his failure. 

**.The fool stared, with a gnn hovering about his lips, and a 
scowl gathering over his eyes, as if uncertain whether he might 
not join in my mirth ; whether it were not pleasant familiarity, 
or what it really was, contempt. I settled his doubts by sud- 
denly retrieving my gravity, and desiring him to walk away, for 
I came to see Linton, not him. 

'* He reddened — I saw that by the moonlight— dropped his 
hand from the latch, and skulked off, a picture of mortified 
vanity. He imagined himself to be as accomplished as Linton, 
I suppose, because he could spell his own name; and was 
marvelously discomfited that I didn't think the same. 

" Stop, Miss Catherine, dear !" I interrupted. " 1 shall not 
scold, but I don't like your conduct there. If you had remem- 
bered that Hareton was your cousin, as much as Master Heath- 
cliflF, you would have felt how impnoper it was to behave in 
that way. At least, it was praiseworthy ambition for him to 
desire to be as accomplished as Linton : and probably he did 
not leam merely to show off; you had made him ashamed of 
his ignorance before— I have no doubt; and he wished to 
remedy it and please you. To sneer at his imperfect attempt 
was very bad breeding — ^had yi>u been brought up in his cir- 
cumstances, would you be less rude ? he was as quick and as 
intelligent a child as ever you were, and I'm hurt that he should 
be despised now, because that base HeathcUff has treated him 
so unjustly." 

" Well, Ellen, you won't cry about it, will you 1" she ex- 
claimed, surprised at my earnestness. "But wait, and you 
■hall hear if he conned his a d 0, to please me ; and if it were 
worth while being civil to the brute. 1 entered, Linton was 
lying on the settle and half got up to welcome me. 

'^ ' I'm ill to-night, Catherine, love,' he said, ' and you must 
have all the talk, and let me listen. Come, and sit by me ; I 
was sure you wouldn't break your word, and I'll make you 
promise again, before you go.' 



316 WUTHERING HEIGHT 8. 



" I knew now that I mustn't tease him, as he was ill ; and I 
spoke sofbly and put no questions, and avoided irritating him in 
any way. I had brought some of my nicest books for him ; he 
asked me to read a little of one, and I was about to comply, 
when Eamshaw burst the door open, having gathered venoni 
with reflection. He advanced direct to us ; seized Linton by 
the arm, and swung him off the seat. 

" • Get to thy own room !' he said, in a voice almost inarticu- 
late with passion, and his face looked swelled and furious. 
' Take her there if she comes to see thee— thou shalln't keep 
me out of this. Begone wi' ye both V 

** He swore at us, and left Linton no time to answer, nearly 
throwing him into the kitchen ; and he clenched his fist, as I 
followed, seemingly longing to knock me down. I was afraid, 
for a moment, and I let one volume fall ; he kicked it afler me, 
and shut us out. 

** I heard a malignant, crackly laugh by the fire, and, turning, 
beheld that odious Joseph, standing rubbing his bony hands, and 
quivering. 

" * Aw wer sure he'd sarve ye eht ! He's a grand lad ! He's 
getten t'raight sperrit in him ! He knaws — aye, he knaws as 
weel as aw do, who sud be t'maister yonder. Ech, ech, ech ! 
He mad ye skill; properly ! Ech, ech, ech !' 

" * Where must we go ]' I said to my cousin, disregarding the 
old wretch's mockery. 

" Linton was white and trembling. He was not pretty then, 
Ellen. Oh, no ; he looked frightful, for his thin face and large 
eyes were wrought into an expression of frantic, powerless 
fury. He eras^ed the handle of the door, and shook it It 
was fastened inside. 

" * If you don't let me in I'll kill you — ^if you don't let me in 
I'll kill you !' he rather shrieked than said. * Devil ! devil ! I'll 
kill you, I'll kill you!' 

" Joseph uttered his croaking laueh again. 

« ' Thear, that's t'father !' he cried. ' That's father ! We've 
alias summut uh orther side in us. Niver heed, Hareton, lad — 
dunnut be 'feard — ^he can not get at thee !' 

*' I took hold of Linton's hands, and tried to pull him away ; 
but he shrieked so shockingly that I dared not proceed. At last, 
his cries were choked by a dreadful fit of coughing; blood 
gashed from his mouth, and he fell on the ground. 

" I ran into the yard, sick with tenor, and called for Zillafa 



WUTHEBIN6 H E 1 S U T 8. 2l7 



as loud as I could. She soon heard me ; she was milking the 
cows in a shed behind the barn, and, hurrying from her wcrk, 
she inquired what there was to do 1 

** I hadn't breath to explain ; dragging her in, I looked about 
for Linton. Eamshaw had come out to examine the mischief 
he had caused, and he was then conveying the poor thing up 
stairs. Zillah and I ascended after him ; but he stopped me at 
the top of the steps, and said I shouldn't go in, I must go 
hdme. I exclaimed that he had killed Linton, and I woiM 
enter. 

'' Joseph looked the door, and declared I should do ' no sich 
stu£^' and asked me whether I were ' bahn to be as mad as 
him 1' 

'' I stood crying, till the housekeeper re-appeared ; she affirm 
ed he would be better in a bit ; but he couldn't do with that 
shrieking and din, and she took me, and nearly carried me mto 
the house. 

'* Ellen, I was ready to tear my hair off my head ! I sobbed 
and wept, so that my eyes were almost blind ; and the ruffian 
you have such sympathy with stood opposite, presuming every 
now and then to bid me ' wisht,' and denying that it was his 
fault ; and, finally^ lightened by my assertions that I would tell 
papa, and he should be put in prison and hanged, he commenced 
blubbei:ing himself, and hurried out to hide his cowardly agita- 
tion. Still I was not rid of him. When at length they com- 
pelled me to depart, and I had got some hundred yards off the 
premises, he suddenly issued from the shadow of tiie road-side, 
and checked Minny and took hold of me. 

** * Miss Catherine, I'm ill grieved,' he began, * but it's rayther 
too bad ' 

" I gave him a cut with my whip, thinking, perhaps he 
would murder me. He let go, thundering one of his horrid 
curses, and I galloped home, more than half out of my senses. 

** I ^dn't bid you good-night that evening ; and I didn't go 
to Wuthering Heights the next. I wished to exceedingly ; but 
I was strangely excited, and dreaded to hear that Linton was 
dead, sometimes, and sometimes shuddered at the thought of 
encountering Hareton. 

" On the third day I took courage-— at least I couldn't bear 
longer suspense — and stole off once more. I went at five 
o'clock, and walked, fancying I might manage to creep into the 
nouse* and up to Linten's room, unobserved. However, the 

R 



218 WUTHEKINO HEIGHTS. 



doff gB.ye notice of my approach ; Zillah received me, and Bay 
lag, * the lad was mending nicely/ ^owed me into a small, tidy^ 
carpeted apartment, where, to my inexpressible joy, I beheld 
Linton laid on a little s(^ reading one of my books. But he 
would neither speak to me nor look at me through a whole 
hour, £11^1. He has such an unhappy temper ; and what quite 
confounded me, when he did open his mouth, it was to utter 
the ials^ood, that I had occasioned the uproar, and Hareton 
was not to blame ! 

** Unable to reply, except passionately, I got up, and walked 
from the room. Ho sent aror me a faint * Catherine P he did 
not reckon on bding answered so— but 1 wouldn't turn back; 
and the morrow was the second day on which I stayed at homo, 
nearly determined to visit him no more. 

" !Dut it was so miserable going to bed, and getting up, and 
never hearing any thing about him, that my resolution melted 
into air, before it was properly formed. It Jiad appeared wrong 
to take the journey once; now it seemed vrrong to refrain. 
Michael came to ask if he must saddle Minny ; I said ' Yes,' 
and considered myself doii^ a duty as she bore me over the 
hiUs. I was forced to pass the front windows to get to the 
court ; it was no use trying to conceal my presence. 

'"Young master is in the house/ said Zillah, as she saw me 
making for the parlor. 

** I went in ; Eamshaw was there also, but he quitted the 
room directly. Linton sat in the great artn-chair half asleep ; 
walking up to the fire, I began in a serious tone, partly mean- 
ing it to be true. 

*' ' As you don't like me, Linton, and as you think I come on 
purpose to hurt you, and pretend that I do so every time, this is 
our last meeting — ^let us say good bye ; and tell Mr. Heathcliff 
that you have no wish to see me, and that he mustn't invent any 
more falsehoods on the subject.' 

'^ ' Sit down and take your hat c^, Catherine,' he answered. 
' You are so mikch happier than 1 am, you ought to be better. 
Papa talks enough of my defects, and shows enough scorn of 
me, to make it natural I should doubt myself I doubt whether 
I am not altogether as worthless as he calls me, frequently ; and- 
then I feel so cross and bitter, I hate every body ! I am worth- 
lessy and bad in temper, and bad in spirit, almost always — and 
if you- choose, you/»ay say good bye — ^you'll get rid of an an- 
noyance-. Only, Catherine, do me this justice ; believe that if I 



WUTBEEINa HEIGHTS. 219 



might be as sweet, and as kind, and as good as you acre, I would 
be, as willingly, and niore so, than as happy and as healthy. And, 
believe that your kindness has made me love you deeper than 
if I deserved your love, and though I couldn't, and can not help 
showing my nature to you, I regret it, and repent it, and shall 
regret, and repent it, till I die l*^ 

'* I felt he spoke the truth ; and I felt I must £>rgive him ; and, 
though he should quarrel the next moment, I must forgive him 
again. We were reconciled, but we cried, both of us, the 
whole time I stayed. Not entirely for sorrow, yet I was sorry 
Linton had that distorted nature. He'll never let his iHends be 
at ease, and he'll never be at ease himself! 

"I have always gone to his little parlor, since that night; 
because his father returned the day after. About three times, 
I think, we have been merry and hopeful, as we were the first 
evening ; the rest of my visits were dreary and troubled — ^now 
with his selfishness and spite ; and now vnth his suffeiings : but 
I've learned to endure the former with nearly as little resent- 
ment as the latter. 

" Mr. Heathcliff puiposely avoids me. I have hardly seen 
him at aU. Last Sunday, indeed, coming earlier than usual, I 
heard him abusing pocnr Linton, cruelly, /or his conduct of the 
night before. I can't tell how he knew of it, unless he listened. 
Linton had certainly behaved provokingly ; hovrever, it was the 
business of nobody but me ; and I interrupted Mr. Heathcliff 's 
lecture, by entering, and telling him so. He burst into a laugh, 
and went away, saying he was glad I took that view of the 
matter. Since then, I've told Linton he must whisper his bitter 
things. 

" Now, Ellen, you have heard all ; and I can't be prevented 
from going to Wuthering Heights, except by inflicting misery 
on two people — whereas, if you'll only not tell papa, my going* 
need disturb the tranquillity of none. You'll not tell, will you ? 
It will be very heartless if you do." 

" 111 make up my mind on that point by to-morrow, Mias 
Catherine," I replied. **It requires some study; and so I'll 
leave you to your rest, and go think it over." 

I thought it over aloud in my master's presence ; walking 
straight from her room to his, and relating the whole story with 
the exception of her conversations with her cousin, and any 
mention of Hareton. 

Mr. Linton was alarmed and distressed more than he would 



220 WUTHERINO HEIQHTS. 



acknowledge to me. In the morning, Catberine learned my 
betrayal of ber confidence, and sbe learned also tbat ber secret 
visits were to end. 

In Tain sbe wept and writbed aeainst tbe interdict ; and im- 
plored ber fetber to bave pity on Lmton : all sbe got to comfort 
her was a promise that be would write, and give him leave to 
come to tbe Grange when be pleased ; but explaining that be 
must no longer expect to see Catberine at Wuthering Heights. 
Perhaps, bad be been aware of bis nephew's disposition and 
state of health, be would bave seen fit to withhold even that 
slight consolation. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

These things happened last winter, sir, — said Mrs. Dean. — 
hardly more than a year ago. Last winter, I did not think, at 
another twelve months' end, I should be amusing a stranger to 
tbe family with relating them! Yet, who knows bow long 
you'll be a stranger 1 You're too young to rest always con-r 
tented, living by yourself; and I some way fancy n# one could 
see Catherine Linton, and not love ber. You smile ; but why 
do you look so lively and interested, when I talk about her — 
and why bave you asked me to bang ber picture over your fire- 
place? and why — 

" Stop, my good friend !" I cried. " It may be very possible 
tbat I should love ber ; but would she love me 1 1 doubt it 
too much to venture my tranquillity, by running into tempta- 
tion ; and then my home is not here. I'm of the busy world, 
and to its arms I must return. Go on. Was Catberine obedient 
to ber father's commands V* 

She was, continued the housekeeper. — Her affection for him 
was still the chief sentiment in ber heart ; and he spoke witliout 
anger ; be spoke in the deep tenderness of one about to leave 
his treasure amid perils and foes, where bis remembered words 
would be tbe only aid tbat be could bequeath to guide ber. 

He said to me, a few days afterward, 

" I wish my nephew would wrrite, Ellen, or call. Tell me, 
sincerely, what do you think of him ; is he changed for tbe better, 
or is there a prospect of improvement, as be grows a man V* 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 2^1 



" He's very delicate, sir/' I replied ; " and scarcely likely to 
reach manhood; but this I can say, he does not resemble his 
father ; and if Miss Catherine had the misfortune to marry him, 
he would not be beyond her control, unless she were extremely 
and foolishly indulgent. However, master, you'll have plenty 
of time to get acquainted with him, and see whether he would 
suit her ; it wants four years and more to his being of age." 

Edgar sighed j and, walking to the window, looked out to- 
ward Ginmierton Kirk. It was a misty afternoon, but the 
February sun shone dimly, and we could just distinguish the 
two fir-trees in the yard, and the sparely scattered gravestones. 

" I've prayed often," he half soliloquized, " for the approach 
of what IS coming ; and now I begin to shrink and fear it. I 
thought the memory of the hour I came down that glen a bride- 
groom, would be less sweet than the anticipation that I was 
soon, in a few months, or, possibly weeks, to be carried up and 



laid in its lonely hollow ! Ellen, I've been very happy with my 
little Cathy. Through winter nights and summer days she was 
a living hope at my side— but I've been as happy musing by 
myself among those stones, under that old church — ^lying, 
through the long June evenings, on the green mound of her 
mother's grave, and wishing, yearning for the time when I 
might lie beneath it. What can I do for Cathy 1 How must 
I quit her ? I'd not care one moment for Linton being Heath- 
cliflT's son ; nor for his taking her from me, if he could console 
her for my loss. I'd not care that Heathcliif gained his ends, 
and triumphed in robbing me of my last blessing ! But should 
Linton be unworthy — only a feeble tool to his father — I can 
not abandon her to him ! And, hard though it be to crush her 
buoyant spirit, I must persevere in making her sad while I live, 
and leaving her soUtary when I die. Darling ! I'd rather re- 
sign her to God, and lay her in the earth before me." 

" Resign her to God, as it is, sir," I answered, " and if we 
should lose you— which may He forbid — under His providence 
111 stand her friend and counsellor to the last. Miss Catherine 
is a good girl ; I don't fear that she will go willfully wrong; and 
people who do their duty are always finally rewarded." 

Spring advanced ; yet my master gathered no real strength, 
though he resumed his walks in the grounds with his daughter. 
To her inexperienced notions, this itself was a sign of con- 
valescence ; and then his cheek was often flushed, and his eyef* 
were bright ; she felt sure of his recovering. 



222 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 



On her seventeenth birthday he did not visit the churchyard, 
it was i-aining, and I observed — 

" You'll surely not go out to-night, sir V* 

" No, I'll defer it, this year, a little longer," he snswered. 

He wrote again to Linton, expressing his great desire to see 
him; and, had the invalid been presentable, I've no doubt his 
father ^ould have permitted him to come. As it was, being 
instructed, he returned an answer, intimating that Mr. Heath- 
cliff objected to his calling at the Grange ; but his ancle's kind 
remembrance delighted him, and he hoped to meet him some- 
times in his rambles, and personally to petition that his coi»in 
and he might not remain long so utterly divided. 

That part of his letter was simple, and, probably, his own. 
Heathclm knew he could plead eloquently enough for Catherine's 
company. Then — 

*' 1 do not ask," he said, ** that she may visit here ; but am I 
never to see her, because my father forbids me to go to her 
home, and you forbid her to come to mine? Do, now and 
then, ride with her toward the Heights ; and let us exchange a 
few words in your presence 4 we have done nothing to deserve 
this separation ; and you are not angry with me— you have no 
reason to dislike me — ^you allow yourself. Dear uncle ! send 
me a kind note to-morrow ; and leave to join you any where 
you please, except at Thrushcross Grange. I believe an inter- 
view would convince you that my father's character is not 
mine ; he affirms I am more your nephew than his son ; and 
though I have faults which render me unworthy of Catherine, 
she has excused them, and, for her sake, you should also. You 
inquire after my health — ^it is better; but while I remain cut 
off fi;om all hope, and doomed to solitude, or to the society 
o[ those who never did, and never wUl like me, how can I be 
cheerful and well V* 

Edgar, though he felt for the boy, could not consent to grant 
his request ; because he could not accompany Catherine. 

He said, in summer, perhaps, they might meet ; meantime, 
he wished him to continue writing at intervals, and engaged to 
give him what advice and comfort he was able by letter ; being 
well aware of his hard position in his family. 

Linton complied; and had he been unrestrained, would 
probably have spoiled all by filling his epistles with complaints 
and lamentations ; but his father kept a sharp watch over him ; 
and, of course, insisted on every line that my master sent being 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 223 

ebowii ; so instead of penning hiB peculiar pecsonal safferings 
and distresses, the themes constantly uppermost in his thoughts, 
he harped <m the cruel obligation of being held asunder from 
his friend and love ; and gently intimated that Mr. Linton must 
allow an interview soon, or he should fear he was purposely 
deceiving him with empty promises. 

Cathy was a powerful ally at home : and, between them, 
they, at length, persuaded my master to acquiesce in their 
having a ride or a walk together, about once a week, under my 
guarmanship, and on the moors nearest the Grange ; for June 
found him still declining ; and, though he hi^ set aside yearly 
a portion of his income fbr my young lady's fortune, he had a 
natural desire that she might retain, or, at least, return in a 
short time to the house of her ancestors ; and he considered 
her only prospect of doing that was by a union with his heir : 
he had no idea that the UHxer was failing almost as fast as him- 
self; nor had any one, I believe; no doctor visited the Heights, 
and no one saw Master Heathcliff, to make report of his con- 
dition among us. 

I, for my part, began to ^ncy my f(»«bodings were false, 
and that he must be actually rallying, when he mentioned riding 
and walking on the moors, and seemed so earnest in pursuing 
his object. I could not picture a &ther treating a dying child 
as tyrannically and wickedly as I afterward learned Heathcliff 
had treated him, to compel this apparent eagerness ; his efforts 
redoubling the more imminently his avaricious and unfeeHng 
plans were threatened vrith defeat by death. 




CHAPTER XXVL 

Summer was already past its prime, when Edgar reluctantly 
yielded his assent to their entreaties, and Catherine and I set 
out on our first ride to join her cousin. 

It was a close, sultry day, devoid of sunshine, but with a sky 
too dappled and hazy to threaten rain ; and our place g£ meet- 
ing had been fixed at the guide-stone, by the cross-roads. On 
arriving there, however, a little herd-boy, di^atched as a mea* 
senger, told us that-— 



224 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

'' Maister Linton wer just ut this side th' Heights, and he'd be 
mitch obleeged to us to gang on a bit further." 

" Then Master Linton has forgot the first injunction of his 
uncle," I observed : " he bid us keep on the Grange land, and 
here we are, off at once." 

" Well, we'll turn our horses' heads round when we reach 
him," answered my companion ; '' our excursion shall lie toward 
home." 

But when we reached him, and that was scarcely a quarter 
of a mile from his own door, we found he had no horse, and we 
were forced to dismount, and leave ours to graze. 

He lay on the heath, awaiting our approach, and did not rise 
till we came vnthin a few yards. Then he walked so feebly, 
and looked so pale, that I immediately exclaimed — 

" Why, Master Heathcliff, you are not fit for enjoying a ram- 
ole this morning. How ill you do look !" 

Catherine surveyed him with grief and astonishment, and 
changed the ejaculation of joy on her lips to one of alarm, and 
the congratulation on their long-postponed meeting to an anxious 
inquiry whether he were worse than usual ? 

"No— better — ^better!" he panted, trembling, and retaining 
her hand as if he needed its support, while his large blue eyes 
wandered timidly over her, the hollowness round them trans- 
forming to haggard wildness the languid expression they once 



'But you have been worse," persisted his cousin, "worse 
than when I saw you last — you are thinner, and — " 

"I'm tired," he interrupted, hurriedly. "It is too hot for 
walking : let us rest here. And in the morning t often feel sick 
— ^papa says I grow so fast." 

Badly satisfi^, Cathy sat down, and he reclined beside her. 

" This is something like your paradise," said she, making an 
effort at cheerfulness. " You recollect the two days we agreed 
to spend in the place and way each thought pleasantest ? This 
is nearly yours, only there are clouds ; but then, they are so 
Bofi; and mellow, it is nicer than sunshine. Next week, if you 
can, we'll ride down to the Grange Park, and try mine." 

Linton did not appear to remember what she talked of, and 
he had evidently great difficulty in sustaining any kind of con- 
versation. His lack of interest in the subjects she starte^, and 
his equal incapacity to contribute to her entertainment, were so 
obvious that she could not conceal her disappointment. An in- 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 225 



definite alteration had come over his whole person and manner. 
The pettishness that might be caressed into fondness had yielded 
to a listless apathy ; there was less of the peevish temper of a 
child which frets and teases on purpose to be soothed,^ and more 
of the self-absorbed moroseness of a confirmed invalid, repelling 
consolation, and ready to regard the good-humored muth of 
others as an insult. 

Catherine perceived, as well as I did, that he held it rather a 
punishment than a gratification to endure our company ; and 
she made no scruple of proposing, presently, to depart. That 
proposal, unexpectedly, roused Linton firom his lethargy, and 
threw him into a strange state of agitation. He glanced fear- 
fully toward the Heights, begging she would remain another 
half-hour at least. 

" But, I think," said Cathy, " you'd be more comfortable at 
home than sitting here ; and I can not amuse you to-day, I see, 
by my tales, and songs, and chatter. You have grown wiser 
than I, in these six* months ; you have little taste for my diver- 
sions now ; or else, if I could amuse you, I'd willingly stay." 

" Stay to rest yourself," he replied. " And, Catherine, don't 
think or say that I'm very unwell — ^it is the heavy weather and 
heat^that make me dull ; and I walked about, before you came, 
a great deal, for me. Tell uncle, I'm in tolerable health, will 
you V 

" I'll tell him that you say so, Linton. I couldn't affirm that 
you are," observed my young lady, wondering at his pertina- 
cious assertion of what was evidently an untruth. 

" And be here again next Thursday," continued he, shunning 
her puzzled gaze. " And give him my thanks for permitting 
you to come — my best thanks, Catherine. And — and, if you 
did meet my father, and he asked you about me, don't lead 
him to suppose that I've been extremely silent and stupid — 
don't look sad and downcast, as you are doing — ^he'll be 
angry." 

" I care nothing for his anger," exclaimed Cathy, imagining 
she would be its object. 

" But I do," said her cousin, shuddering. " D(nCt provoke 
him against me, Catherine, for he is very hard." 

" Is he severe to you. Master Heathcliff ?" I inquired. 
" Has he grown weary, of indulgence, and passed from passive 
to active hatred 1" 

Linton looked at me, but did not answer ; and, after keeping 



226 WUTHBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 

her seat by his side another ten minutes, during which his head 
idll drowsily on his breast, and he uttered nothing except sup- 
pressed moans of exhaustion, or pain, Cathy began to seek 
solace in looking for bilberries, and sharing the produce of her 
researches with me : she did not o£fer them to him, for she saw 
further notice would only weary and annoy. 

*' Is it half an hour now, Ellen !" she whispered in my eai, 
at last. " I can't tell why we should stay. He's asleep, and 
papa will be wanting us back." 

" Well, we must not leave him asleep," I answered ; " wait 
till he wakes, and be patient You were mighty eager to set 
off, but your longing to see poor Linton has soon evaporated.'* 

" Why did he wish to see me ?" returned Catherine. " In 
his crossest humors, formerly, I liked him better than I do 
in his present curious mood. It's just as if it were a task he 
was compelled to perform — this interview — ^for fear his father 
should scold him. But I'm hardly going to come to give Mr. 
Heathcliff pleasure ; whatever reason he may have for ordering 
Linton to undergo this penance. And, though I'm glad he's 
better in health, I'm sorry he's so much less pleasant, and so 
much .less affectionate to me." 

" You think he is better in health, then 1" I said. 

" Yes," she answered ; " because he always made such a 
great deal of his sufferings, you know. He is not tolerably 
well, as he told me to tell papa, but he's better, very likely." 

" There you differ vdth me. Miss Cathy," I remarked ; " I 
should conjecture him to be far worse." 

Linton here started from his slumber, in bewildered terror, 
and asked if any one had called his name. 

" No," said Catherine ; " unless in dreams. I can not con 
oeive how you manage to doze, out of doors, in the morning." 

" I thought I heard my father," he gasped, glancing up to 
the frowning nab above us. " You are sure nobody spoke ?" 

" Quite sure," replied his cousin. " Only Ellen and I were 
disputing concerning your health. Are you truly stronger, 
Linton, than when we separated in winter 1 If you be, I'm 
certain one thing is not stronger — ^your regard for me — speak, 
are you ]" 

Tears gushed from Linton's eyes as he answered — 

" Yes, yes, I am !" 

And, still under the spell of the imaginaiy voice, his gaza 
wandered up and down to detect its owner. Cathy rose. 



WUTHR&ING HEIGHTS. 327 

** For to-day W6 must part," she said. " And I won't con- 
ceal that I have been sadly disappointed with our meeting, 
though V\\ mention it to nobody but you— not that I stand in 
awe of Mr. Heathcliff 1" 

** Hush," murmured Linton ; ** for God's sake, hush ! He's 
coming." And he dung to Catherine's aim, striving to detain 
bear ; but, at that announcement, she hastily disengaged herself, 
«nd whistled to Minny, who obeyed her like a dog. 

"I'll be here next Thursday," she cried, springing to the 
«addle. " Good bye. Quick, Ellen !" 

And so we left him, scarcely conscious of our departure, so 
absorbed was he in anticipating his father's approach. 

Before we reached home, Catherine's displeasure softened 
into a perpkxed sensation of pity and regret, largely blended 
with vague, uneasy doubts about Linton's actual circumstances, 
physical and social ; in which I partook, though I counselled 
ber not to say mudi, for a second journey would make us better 
judges. 

My master requested an account of our ongoings : his neph- 
ew's offering of thanks was duly delivered. Miss Cathy gently 
touching on the rest : I also threw little light on his inquiries, 
for I hardly knew what to hide and what to reveaL 



CHAPTER XXVn. 

Seven days glided away, every one marking its course by 
the henceforth rapid alteration of Edgar Linton's state. The 
havoc that inontbs had previously vsrrought was now emulated 
by the inroads of hours. Catherine we would fain have de- 
luded, yet but her own quick spirit refused to delude her. It 
divined in secret, and brooded on the dreadful probability, 
gradually ripening into certainty. 

She had not the heart to mention her ride, when Thursday 
came round ; I mentioned it for her, and obtained permission 
to order her out of doors ; for the library, where her fether 
stopped a short time daily, the brief period he could bear to sit 
up, and the chamber, had become her whole world. She 
grudged each moment that did not find her bending over hit 



tVUTHERINO HBI6HTS. 



pillow, or seated by his side. Her countenance grew wan 
with watching and sorrow, and my master gladly dismissed her 
to what he flattered himself would be a happy change <^ 
scone and society, drawing comfort from the hope that she 
would not now be left entirely alone after his death. 

He had a fixed idea, I guessed by several observations he 
let fall, that as his nephew resembled him in person, he would 
resemble him in mind ; for Linton's letters bore few, or no in- 
dications of his defective character. And I, through parddh- 
able weakness, refrained from correcting the error ; askmg my- 
self what good there would be in disturbing his last moments 
with information that he had neither power nor opportunity to 
turn to account 

We deferred our excursion till the afternoon ; a golden after- 
noon of August — every breath from the hills so full of life, that it 
seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive. Cath- 
erine's face was just like the landscape— -shadows and sunshine 
flitting over it in rapid succession ; but the shadows rested long- 
er and the sunshine was more transient, and her poor little 
heart reproached itself for even that passing forgetfiilness of 
its cares. 

We discerned Linton watching at the same spot he had se- 
lected before. My young mistress alighted, and told me that 
as she was resolved to stay a very little while, I had better 
hold the pony and remain on horseback ; but I dissented, I 
wouldn't risk losing sight of the charge committed to me a min- 
ute ; so we climbed the slope of heath together. 

Master Heathcliff received us with greater animation on this 
occasion ; not the animation of high spirits, though, nor yet of 
joy ; it looked more like fear. 

" It is late !" he said, speaking short, and with difficulty. 
" Is not your father very ill 1 1 thought you wouldn't come." 

" Why won't you be candid 1" cried Catherine, swallowing 
her greeting. " Why can not you say at once, you don't want 
me 1 It is strange, Linton, that for the second time you have 
brought me here on purpose, apparently, to distress us both, 
and for no reason besides !" 

Linton shivered, and glanced at her, half supplicating, half 
ashamed, but his cousin's patience was not sufficient to endure 
this enigmatical behavior. 

" My father is very ill," she said, " and why am I called from 
his bedside — why didn't you send to absolve me from my prom- 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 229 

ise, when you wished I wouldn't keep it 1 Come ! I desire an 
explanation — ^playing and trifling are completely banished out 
of my mind ; and I can't dance attendance on your affectations 
now ! 

" My affectations !" he murmured, " what are they 1 For 
heaven's sake, Catherine, don't look so angiy ! Despise me as 
much as you please;.! am a worthless, cowardly wretch — I 
can't be scorned enough ! but I'm too mean for your anger — 
hate my father, and spare me — ^for contempt I" 

" Nonsense !" cried Catherine, in a passion. " Foolish, silly 
boy ! And there ! he trembles, as if I were really going to 
touch him ! You needn't bespeak contempt, Linton ; any body 
will have it spontaneously at your service. Get off! I shall re- 
turn home— it is folly dragging you irom the hearth-stone, and 
pretending — what do we pretend ] Let go my frock — if I 
pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should 
spurn such pity ! Ellen, tell him how disgracefril this conduct is. 
Uise, and don't degrade yourself into an abject reptile — dorCty 

With streaming face and an expression of agony, Linton had 
thrown his nerveless frame along the ground ; he seemed con- 
vulsed with exquisite terror. 

" Oh !" he sobbed, " I can not bear it ! Catherine, Catherine, 
I'm a traitor, too, and I dare not tell you ! But leave me and 
I shall be killed ! Dear Catherine, my life is in your hands ; 
and you have said you loved me — and if you did it wouldn't 
harm you. You'll not go, then ] kind, sweet, good Catherine ! 
And perhaps you vnH consent-^and he'll let me die with you !" 

My young lady, on witnessing his intense angruish, stooped to 
raise lum. The old feeling of indulgent tenderness overcame 
her vexation, and she grew thoroughly moved and alarmed. 

" Consent to what 1" she asked. " To stay 1 Tell me the 
meaning of this strange talk, and I will. You contradict your 
own words, and distract me ! Be calm and fr^nk, and confess 
at once all that weighs on your heart. You wouldn't injure me, 
Linton, would you T You wouldn't let any enemy hurt me, if 
you could prevent it 1 I'll believe your are a coward, for your- 
self, but not a cowardly betrayer of your best friend." 

** But my father threatened me," gasped the boy, clasping 
his attenuated fingers, '< and I dread him — I dread him ! I dart 
not tell!" 

" Oh, well !" said Catherine, with scornful compassion, " keep 
your secret, Vm no coward — save yourself, I'm not afr*aid !" 



280 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 



Her magnanimity provoked hb tears ; he wept wildly; kias- 
ing ber supporting hands, and yet could not summon courage to 
speak out. 

I was cogitating what the mystery might be, and determined 
Catherine dbould never suffer, to benefit him or any one else, by 
my good will. When, hearing a rustle among the ling, I looked 
up, and saw Mr. Heathcliff almost dose upon us, descending 
the Heights. He didn't cast a glance toward my companions, 
though they were sufi&ciently near for Lintcm's sobs to be audi- 
ble; but hailing me, in the almost hearty tone he assumed to 
none besides, and the sincerity of which I couldn't avoid doubt- 
ing, he said, 

" It is something to see you so near to my house, Nelly ! 
How are you at the Grange ] Let us hear ! The rumor goes," 
he added in a lower tone, *' that Edgar Linton is on bis* death- 
bed — perhaps they exaggerate Ins illness V 

" No ; my master is tifying," I replied, " it is true enough. 
A sad thing it will be for us all, but a blessing for him !" 

" How long will he last, do you think ]" he asked. 

" I don't know," I said. 

" Because," he continued, looking at the two young people, 
who were fixed under his eye— Linton appeared as if he could 
not venture to stir, or raise his head, and Catherine could not 
move, on his account — ** because that lad yonder, seems deter- 
mined to beat me— -and I'd thank his uncde to be quick and go 
before him. Hallo ! Has the whelp been playing that game 
long? I did give him some lessons about sniveUing. & he 
pretty lively with Miss Linton generaUy 1" 

" Lively ? no— he has shown the greatest distress ;" I answer- 
ed. " To see him, I should say that, instead of rambling with 
his sweetheart on the hills, he oi^ght to be in bed, under the 
hands of a docUw:." ^ 

** He shall be, in a day or two," muttered Heathcliff. " But 
fiist — get up, Linton ! Get up !" he shouted. " Don't grovel 
on the ground there — ^up this moment !" 

Linton had sunk prostrate again in another paroxysm of 
helpless fear, caused oy his father's glance towaixl him, I sup- 
pose ; there was nothing else to produce such humiliation. He 
made several efforts to obey, but his little strength was anni- 
hilated, for the time, and he Fell back again with a moan. Mr. 
Heathcliff advanced, and lifted him to lean against a ridge of 
turf. 



WUTHER1N6 HBIGHTB. 281 

" Now," said be with curbed ferocity, " I'm getting angry — 
i»d if you dcm't command that paltry spirit of yours — Damn 
you! Gret up, directly !" 

'' I will, fiather !" he psiri:ed. " Only, let me alone, or I shall 
faint ! I've done as you wished, I'm sure. Catherine will tell 
you that I-^that I— -4iave been cheerftiL Ah ! keep by me, 
Catherine ; give me your hand." 

" Take mine," said his faUier ; " stand on your feet ! There 
now — she'll lend you her arm — that's right — ^look at her. You 
would imagine I was the devil himself. Miss Linton, to excite 
such horror. Be so kind as to walk home with him, will you 1 
He shudders if I touch him." 

'* Linton, dear," whispered Catherine, " I can't go to Wuth- 
ering Heights — ^papa has forbidden me. He'll not harm you, 
why are you so a&aid t" 

<* I can never re-enter that house," he answered. ^ I am not 
to re-enter it without you." 

" Stop—" cried his father. " We'll respect Catherine's filial 
scruples. NeUy, take him in, and I'll follow your advice con- 
cemmg the doctor, without delay." 

" You'll do well," replied I, ** but I must remain with my 
mistress. To mind your son is not my business.'* 

"You are very stiff!" said Heathchfl^ "I know that— but 
you'll force me to pinch the baby, and make it scream, before it 
moves your charity. Come, then, my hero, are you willing to 
return, escorted by vqq 1" 

He approached once more, and made as if he would seize 
the firagile being ; but shrinking back, Linton clung to his cousin, 
and implored her to accompany him, with a frantic importunity 
that admitted no denial. 

However I disapproved, I couldn't hinder her ; indeed how 
could she have refused him herself? What was filling him with 
dread we had no means of discerning ; but there he was, pow- 
erless under its gripe, and any addition seemed capable of 
shocking him into idiocy. We reached the threshold ; Cathe 
rine walked in ; and I stood vraiting till she had conducted the 
invalid to a chair, expecting her out immediately, when Mr 
Heathcliff, pushing me forward, exclaimed, — 

" My house is not stricken with the plague, Nelly ; and I 
have a mind to be hospitable to-day ; sit down, and allow me to 
shut the do€»*." 

He shut and locked it also. I started. 



282 WUTHBRING HEIGHTS. 

"You shall have tea before you eo home," he added. "I 
am by myselE Hareton is gone with some cattle to the Leef 
— and Zillah and Joseph are off on a journey of pleasure. And, 
though I'm used to being alone,. I'd rather have some interesting 
company if I can get it. Miss Linton, take your seat by him. 
I give you what I have ; the present is hardly worth accepting ; 
but I have nothing else to offer — it is Linton I mean. How 
she does stare 1 If s odd what a savage feeling I have to any 
thing that seems afraid of me ! Had I been bom where laws 
are less strict, and tastes less dainty, I should treat myself to a 
slow vivifisection of those two, as an evening's amusement." 

He drew in his breath, struck the table, and swore to him- 
self, 

" By hell ! I hate them." 

** I'm not afraid of you !" exclaimed Catherine, who could 
not hear the latter part of his speech. 

She stepped close up ; her black eyes flashing with passion 
and resolution. 

" Give me that key — ^I will have it !" she said. " I wouldn't 
eat or drink here if I were starving." 

Heathcliff had the key in his hand that remained on the 
table. He looked up, seized with a sort ci surprise at her 
boldness, or, possibly, reminded, by her voice and glance, of the 
person from whom she inherited it. 

She snatched at the instrument, and half succeeded in getting 
it out of his loosened fingers ; but her action recalled him to the 
present ; he recovered it speedily. 

"Now, Catherine Linton," he said, "stand 'off, or I shall 
knock you down ; and that will make Mrs. Dean mad." 

Regardless of this warning, she captured his closed hand, and 
its contents again. 

" We tffitt go !" she repeated, exerting her utmost efforts to 
cause the iron muscles to relax ; and finding that her nails made 
no impression, she applied her teeth pretty sharply. 

Heathcliff glanced at me a glance that kept me n*om interfering 
a m(»nent. Catherine was too intent on his Angers to notice his 
face. He opened them, suddenly, and resigned the object of 
dispute; but, ere she had well secured it, he seized her with the 
liberated hand, and, pulling her on his knee, administered, with 
the other, a shower of terrific slaps on both sides of the head, 
each sufficient to have fulfilled his threat, had she been able to 
fall 



WITTHBRING HEIGHTS. 233 



At this diabolical violence, I rushed on him furiously, 

" You villain !'* I began to cry, " you villain !" 

A touch on the chest silenced me ; I am stout, and soon put 
out of breath ; and, what with that and the rage, I staggered 
dizzily back, and felt ready to suffocate, or to burst a blood- 
vessel. 

The scene was over in two minutes; Catherine, released, 
put her two hands to her temples, and looked just as if she were 
not sure whether her ears were off or on. She trembled like a 
reed, poor thing, and leaned against the table perfectly bewil- 
dered. 

" I know how to chastise children, you see," said the scoun- 
drel, grimly, as he stooped to repossess himself of the key, 
which had dropped to the floor. " Go to Linton now, as I told 
you ; and cry at your ease ! I shall be your father to-morrow 
— all the father you'll have in a few days — and you shall have 
plenty of that — you can bear plenty — ^you're no weakling — ^you 
shall have a daUy taste, if I catch such a devil of a temper in 
your eyes again !" 

Cathy ran to me instead of Linton, and knelt down, and put 
her burning cheek on my lap, weeping aloud. Her cousin had 
shrunk into a comer of the settle, as quiet as a mouse, con- 
gratulating himself, I dare say, that the correction had lighted 
on another than him. 

Mr. Heathcliff, perceiving us all confounded, rose, and ex- 
peditiously made the tea himself. The cups and saucers were 
laid ready. He poured it out, and handed me a cup. 
\ " Wash away your spleen," he said. " And help your own 
naughty pet and mine. It is not poisoned, though I prepared it. 
I'm going out to seek your horses." 

Our first thought, on his departure, was to force an exit 
somewhere. We tried the kitchen door, but that was fastened 
outside ; we looked at the vrindows — they were too narrow for 
even Cathy's little figure. 

" Master Linton," I cried, seeing we were regularly imprison- 
^, " you know what your diabolical father is after, and you 
shall tell us, or I'll box your ears, as he has done your 
cousin's." 

" Yes, Linton ; you must tell," said Catherine. " It was for 
your sake I came ; and it will be wickedly ungrateful if you 
refuse." 

"Give me some, tea, I'm thirsty, and then 111 tell you," 



234 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 



he answered. ** Mrs. Dean, go away. I don't like you stand* 
ing over me. Now, Catherine, you are letting your tears fall 
into my cup !" I won't drink that. Give me another." 

Catherine pushed another to him, and wiped her face. I felt 
disgusted at the little wretch's composure, since he was no 
longer in terror for himself The anguish he had exhibited on. 
the nooor subsided as soon as ever he entered Wuthering Heights ; 
so I guessed he had been menaced with an awful visitation of 
v^rrath, if he failed in decoying us there ; and, that accomplished, 
he had no further immediate fears. 

" Papa wants us to be married," he continued, after sipping 
some of the liquid. ** And he knows your papa wouldn't let us 
marry now ; and he's afraid of my dying if we wait ; so we are 
to be married in the morning, and you are to stay here all night ; 
and if you do as he wishes you shall return home next day, and 
take me with yoi^." 

'' Take yo^ with her, pitiful changeling V* I exclaimed. 
^* You marry i Why, the man is mad, or he thinks us fools, 
every one. And do you imagine that beautiful young lady, that 
healthy, hearty girl, will tie herself to a little perishing monkey 
like you ? Are you cherishing the notion that tmy body, let alo»e 
Miss Cathmne Linton, would have you far a husband 1 You 
want whipping for bringing us in here at all, with your dastardly, 
puling tricks ; and — don't look so silly now ! I've a very good 
mind to shake you severely, for your contemptible treachery, 
and your imbecile conceit." 

I did give him a slight shaking, but it brought on the cough, 
and he took to his ordinary resource of moanmg and weeping, 
and Catherine rebuked me. 

"Stay all night? No!" she said, looking slowly round. 
" Efien, I'll bum that door down, but I'll get out." 

And she would have commenced the execution of her threat 
directly, but Linton was ud in alarm, for his dear self, again. He 
clasped her in his two feeole arms, sobbing — 

"Won't you have me, and save me-— not let me come to the 
Grange? Oh! darling Catherine! you mustn't go, and leave 
me, afler all. You must obey my father, you mtist /" 

" I must obey my own," she replied, ** and relieve him from 
this cruel suspense. The whole night ! What would he think ? 
He'll be distressed already. " I'll either break or bum a way 
out of the house. Be quiet ! You're in no danger — ^but if you 
\under me, Linton — I love papa better than you !" 



WUTHBRING HEIGHT B. 235 

The mortal terror he felt of Mr. Heathclififs anger, restored 
to the boy his coward's eloquence. Catherine was near dis- 
traught — still she persisted that she must go home, and tried 
^itreaty, in her turn, persuading him to subdue his selfidi agony. 

While they were thus occupied, our jailer re-entered. 

" Your beasts have trotted off," he said ; " and — now, Lin- 
Con! sniveling again 1 What has ^e been doing to you ? Come, 
come, have done, and get to bed. In a month or two, my lad, 
you'll be able to pay her back her present tyrannies, with a vig- 
orous hand — ^you're pining for pure love, are yon not 1 nothing 
else in the world — and she diall have you! There, to bed! 
Zillah won^t be here to night — you must undress yourself. 
Hush ! hold your noise ! Once in your own room, I'll not come 
near you, you needn't fear. By chance, you've managed toler- 
ably. I'll look to the rest." 

He spoke these words, holding the door open £ot his son to 
pass ; and the latter achieved his exit exactly as a spaniel might 
which suspected the person who attended on it of designing a 
spiteful squeeze. 

The lock was re-secured. Heathcliff approached the fire, 
where my mistress and I stood silent. Catherine looked up, 
and instinctively raised her hand to her cheek — his neighbor- 
hood revived a painful sensation. Any body else would have 
been incapable of regarding the childish act with sternness, but 
he scowled on her, and muttered — 

" Oh, you are not afiraid of roe ? Your courage is well dis- 
guised — you seem damnably afiraid !" 

" I ctm afi:aid now," she replied ; " because if I stay, papa 
will be miserable ; and how can I endure making him miserable 
^when he— ^when he— Mr. Heathdiff, Ze^ me go horoe ! I 
promise to marry Linton — ^papa would like me to, and I love 
him — and why i^ould you wish to force me to do what I'll 
willingly do of myself I" 

" Let him dare to force you !" I cried. " There's law in the 
land, thank God, there is ! though we he in an out-of-the-way 
place. I'd inform, if he were my own son, and it's felony 
without benefit of clergy !" , 

** Silence !" said the ruffian. " To the devil with your clamor ! 
I don't want you to speak. Miss Linton, I shall enjoy myself 
remarkably in thinking your father will be miserable ; I shall 
not sleep for satisfaction. You could have hit on no surer way 
of fixing your residence under my roof, for the next twenty- 



236 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 



four hours, than informing me that such an event would follow. 
As to your promise to marry Linton, I'll take care you shall 
keep it, for you shall not quit the place till it is fulfilled." 

" Send EUen then, to let papa know I'm safe !'' exclaimed 
Catherine, weeping bitterly. " Or marry me now. Poor papa ! 
Ellen, he'll think we're lost. What shall we do 1" 

" Not he ! He'll think you are tired of waiting on him, and 
run off for a little amusement," answered Heathcliff. " You 
can not deny that you entered my house of your own accord, in 
contempt of his injunctions to the contrary. And it is quite 
natural that you should desire amusement at your age ; and that 
you should weary of nursing a sick man, and that man (ynly 
your father. Catherine, his happiest days were over when your 
days began. He cursed you, I dare say, for coming into the 
world — I did, at least. And it would just do if he cursed you 
as he went out of it. I'd join him. I don't love you ! How 
should 1 1 Weep away. As far as I can see, it will be your 
chief diversion hereafter, unless Linton make amends for oth^ 
losses, and your provident parent appears to fancy he may. 
His letters of advice and consolation entertained me vastly. In 
his last, he recommended my jewel to be careful of his ; and 
kind to her when he got her. Careful and kind — that's paternal ! 
But Linton requh'es his whole stock of care and kindness for 
himself Linton can play the little tyrant well. He'll under- 
take to torture any number of cats, if their teeth be drawn and 
their claws pared. You'll be able to tell his uncle fine tales of 
his kindness, when you get home again, I assure you." 

" You're right there !" I said, " explain your son's character. 
Show his resemblance to yourself; . and then, I hope. Miss 
Cathy will think twice, before she takes the cockatrice !" 

" I don't much mind speaking of his amiable qualities now," 
he answered, " because she must either accept him, or remain 
a prisoner, and you along with her, till your master dies. I 
can detain you both, quite concealed, here. If you doubt, 
encourage her to retract her word, and you'll have an oppor- 
tunity of judging !" 

" I'll not retract my word," said Catherine. " I'll marry 
him, within this hour, if I may go to Thrushcross Grrange after- 
ward. Mr. Heathcliff, you're a cruel man, but you're not a 
fiend ; and you won't, from mere malice, destroy, irrevocably, 
all my happiness. If papa thought I had left him on purpose ; 
and if he died before I returned, could I bear to live % I've 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 237 

given over crying ; but I'm going to kneel here, at your knee ; 
and I'll not get up, and I'll not take my eyes from your face, 
till you look back at me! No, don't turn away! do look! 
You'll see nothing to provoke you. I don't hate you. I'm not 
angry that you struck me. Have you never loved any hody^ in 
all your life, uncle 1 never ? Ah ! you must look once— I'm so 
wretched — you can't help being sorry and pitying me." 

" Keep your eft's fingers off; and move, or I'll kick you !" 
cried Heathcliff, biiitally repulsing her. " I'd rather be hugged 
by a snake. How the devil can you dream of fawning on me ? 
I detest you !" 

He shinigged his shoulders — shook himself, indeed, as if his 
flesh crept with aversion— and thrust back his chair : while I 
got up, and opened my mouth to commence a downright tor- 
rent of abuse ; but I was rendered dumb in the middle of the 
first sentence, by a threat that I should be shown into a room 
by myself, the very next syllable I uttered. 

It was growing dark — we heard a sound of voices at the gai 
den gate. Our host hurried out, instantly ; he had his wits about 
him ; toe had not. There was a talk of two or three minutes, 
and he returned alone. 

" I thought it had been your cousin Hareton," I observed to 
Catherine. "I wish he would arrive! "Who knows but he 
might take our part 1" 

"It was three servants sent to seek you from the Grange," 
said Heathcliff, overhearing me. " You should have opened a 
lattice and called out ; but I could swear that chit is glad you 
didn't. She's glad to be obhged to stay, I'm certain." 

At learning the chance we had missed, we both gave vent to 
our grief without control ; and he allowed us to wail on till nine 
o'clock; then he bid us go up-stairs, through the kitchen, to 
Zillah*s chamber; and I whispered my companion to obey; 
perhaps we might contrive to get through the window there, or 
mto a garret, and out by its skylight. 

The window, however, was narrow like those below, and the 
garret trap was safe from our attempts ; for we were fastened 
in as before. We neither of us lay down : Catherine took her 
station by the lattice, and watched anxiously for rooming — ^a 
deep sigh being the only answer I could obtain to my frequent 
entreaties that she would try to rest. 

I seated myself in a chair, and rocked to and fro, passing 
harsh judgment on my many derelictions of duty ; from which, 



238 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

it Struck me then, all the misfortunes of all my employers sprang^ 
It was not the case, in reality, I am aware ; but it was, in my 
imagination, that dismal night, and I thought Heathclifi* himsetf 
less guilty than I. 

At seven o'clock he came, and inquired if Misa Linton had 
risen. She ran to the door immediately, and answered — 

"Yes." 

" Here, then," he said, opening it, and pulling her out. 

I rose to follow, but he turned the lock again. I demanded 
my release. 

" Be patient," he replied ; I'll send up your breakfast in a 
while." 

I thumped on the panels, and rattled the latch angrily; and 
Catherine asked why 1 waA still shut up 1 He answered, I must 
try to endure it anodier hour, and they went away. I endured 
it two or three hours ; at length, I heard a footstep, not Heath- 
cliff's. 

" I've brought you something to eat," said a vwce ; " c^pen 
t'doorl" 

Complying eagerly, I beheld Hareton, laden with fix>d enough 
to last me all day. 

" Tak it!" he added, thrusting the tray into my hand« 

" Stay one minute," I began. 

" Nay !" cried he, and retired, regardless of any prayers I 
could pour forth to detain him. 

<<And there I remained inclosed the whole day, •and the 
whole of the next night ; and another and another. Five nights 
and four days I remained, altogether, seeing nobody but Hare- 
ton, once every morning ; and he was a model of a jailer — surly, 
and dumb, and deaf to every attempt at moving his sense of jus 
tice or compassion 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

On the fifth morning, or rather afternoon, a different step ap- 
proached — ^lighter and shorter — and, this time, the person entered 
the room. It was Zillah ; donned in her scarlet shawl, with a 
black silk bonnet on her head, and a willow basket swung to 
hex arm. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 239 



« Eh, dear 1" Mrs. Deao/' she exclaimed. " Well ! there b 
a talk about you at Gimmerton. I never thought but you were 
sunk in the Blackhorse marsh, and Missy with you, till master 
told me you'd been found, and he'd lodged you here ! What, 
and you must have got on an island, sure 1 And how long were 
you in the holel Did master save you^ Mrs. Dean] But 
you're not so thin — ^you've not been so poorly, have youl" 

** Your master is a true scoundrel !" 1 replied. " But he shall 
answer for it. He needn't have raised that tale-^it shall all be 
laid bare !" 

"What do you mean]" asked Zillah. ''It's not his tale— 
they tell that in the village*— about your being lost in the marsh ; 
and I calls to Eamshaw, when I come in — 

** * Eh, they*s queer thingB» Mr. Hareton, happened since I 
went o£ It's a sad pity of that likely young lass, and cant 
Nelly Dean.' 

" He stared. I thought he had not heard aught, so I told him 
the rumor. 

** The master listened, and he just smiled to himself, and said — 

" ' If they have been in the marsh, they are out now, Zillah. 
NeUy Dean is lodged, at this minute, in your room. You can 
tell her to fiit, when you go up ; here is the key. The bog- 
water got into her head, and she would have run home, quite 
flighty, but I fixed her, till she came round to her senses. You 
can bid her go to the Grange at once, if she be able, and carry 
a message from me, that her young lady will follow in time to 
attend the squire's foneral.' " 

" Mr. Edgar is not dead ]" I gasped. ** Oh ! Zillah, ZiUah !•' 

•*No, no— sit you down, my good mistress," she replied, 
•'you're right sickly yet. He's not dead: Doctor Kenneth 
thinks he may last another day — I met him on the road and 
asked." 

Instead of sitting down, I snatched my outdoor tlnngs, and 
hartened below, for the way was free. 

On entering the house, I looked about for some one to give 
information of Catherine. 

The place was filled with sunshine, and the door stood wide 
open, but nobody seemed at hand. 

As I hesitated whether to go off at once, or return and seek 
my mistress, a slight cough drew my attention to the hearth. 

Linton lay on the settle, sole tenant, sucking a stick of sugar^ 
candy, and pursuing my movements with apaUietic eyes. 



240 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

'< Where is Miss Catherine V* I demanded sternly, supposing 
I could frighten him into giving intelligence, by catching him 
thus alone. 

He sucked like an innocent. 

** Is she gone V* I said. 

"No," he replied; "she's upstairs — she's not to go; we 
won't let her." 

" You won't let her, little idiot !" I exclaimed. " Direct me 
to her room immediately, or I'll make you sing out sharply." 

"Papa would make you sing out, if you attempted to get 
there," he answered. " He says I'm not to be soft with Cath- 
erine — she's my wife, and it's shameful that she should wish to 
leave me ! He says, she hates me, and wants me to die, that 
she may have my money, but she shan't have it ; and she shan't 
go home ! she never shall ! she may cry, and be sick as much as 
she pleases!" 

He resumed his former occupation, closing his lids, as if he 
meant to drop asleep. 

" Master Heathcliff," I resumed, " have you forgotten all Cath- 
erine's kindness to you, last winter, when you affirmed you 
loved her, and when she brought you books, and sung you 
songs, and came many a time through wind and snow to see 
you ? She wept to miss one evening, because you would be 
disappointed ; and you felt then that she was a hundred times 
too good to you ; and now you believe the lies your father tells, 
though you know he detests you both ! And you join him 
against her. That's fine gratitude, is it not ?" 

The comer of Linton's mouth fell, and he took the sugar- 
candy from his lips. 

" Did she come to Wuthering Heights, because she hated 
you 1" I continued. " Think for yourself! As to your money, 
she does not even know that you will have any. And you say 
she's sick ; and yet, you leave her alone, up there in a strange 
house ! You, who have felt what it is to be so neglected ! 
You could pity your own sufierings, and she pitied them, too, 
but you won't pity hers ! I shed tears Master Heathcliff, you 
see— an elderly woman, and a servant merely — and you, after 
pretending such affection, and having reason to worship her, al- 
most, store every tear you have for yourself, and lie there quite 
at ease. Ah ! you're a heartless, selfish boy !" 

" I can't stay with her," he answered crossly " I'll not stay, 
by myself. She cries so I can't bear it And she won't give 



WUTUERINO HEIGHTS. 241 

over, though I say I'll call my father. I did call him once ; 
and he threatened to strangle her, if she was not quiet ; but she 
began again thein stant, he lefl the room ; moaning and griev- 
ing all night long, though I screamed for vexation that I couldn't 
sleep." 

'<Is Mr. Heathcliff out," I inquired, perceiving that the 
wretched creature had no power to sympathize wiSi his cous- 
in's mental tortures. 

" He's in the court," he repHed, ** talking to Doctor Kenneth 
who says uncle b dying, truly, at last. I'm glad, for I shall be 
master of the Grange after him — Catherine always spoke of it 
as her house. It isn't hers ! It's mine — ^papa says every thing 
sfie has is mine. All her nice books are mine — she offered to 
give me them, and her pretty birds, and her pony Minny, if I 
would get the key of our room, and let her out : but I told her 
she had nothing to give, they were all, all mine. And then she 
cried, and took a little picture from her neck, and said I should 
have that — two pictures in a gold case— on one side her mother, 
and on the other, uncle, when they were young. Th^t was 
yesterday. I said they were mine, too ; and tried to get them 
&om her. The spiteful thing wouldn't let me ; she pushed me 
off, and hurt me. I shrieked out — that frightens her — she heard 
papa coming, and she broke the hinges and divided the case, 
and gave me her mother's portrait ; the* other she attempted to 
hide ; but papa asked what was the matter, and I explamed it. 
He took the one I had away ; and ordered her to resign hers to 
me ; she refused, and he — ^he struck her down, and wrenched 
it off the chain, and crushed it with his foot." 

"And were you pleased to see her struck 1" I asked : having 
my designs in encouraging his talk. 

" I winked," he answered. " I wink to see my father strike 
a dog, or a horse, he does it so hard — yet I was glad at first — 
she deserved punishing for pushing me : but when papa was 
gone she made me come to the window and showed me her 
cheek cut on the inside ag^nst her teeth, and her mouth filling 
with blood : and then she gathered up the bits of the picture^ 
and went and sat down with her face to the wall, and she Ims 
never spoken to me since; and I sometimes think she can't 
speak for pain. I don't like to think so ! but she's a naugh^ 
thing for crying continually ; and she looks so pale and wild* 
I'm afraid of her!" 

"And you can get the key if you choose 1" I said. 

li 



248 WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS. 

*' Yesy when I am up-«taiTB," he answered, " but I can't waft 
mp-«tairB now." 

** In what apartment is it V* I asked* 

" Ob/' he cried, " I shan't tell you whm^ it is ! It is oat 
secret. Nobody, neither Hareton nor Zillah, are to know. 
There! you'TO tired me^go away, go away!" And he turned 
his &ce upon his arm, and shut his eyes again. 

I considered it best to depait without seeing Mr. Heathcliff ; 
and bring a rescue for my young lady from tiie Grange. 

On reaching it, the astonishment of my fellow servants to see 
me, and their joy also, was intense ; and when they hear^ that 
their little mistresB was safe, two or three were about to hurry 
up, and shout the news at Mr. Edgar's door : but I bespoke 
the announcement of it myself. 

How changed I found him, even in those few days ! . He lay 
an image of sadness and resignadon, waiting his death. Very 
youne he looked : though his actual age was thirty-nine ; one 
would have called him ten years younger, at least. He thought 
of Catherine, for he murmured her name. I touched his hand 
and spoke. 

** Catherine is coming, dear master !" I whispered ; ** she iR 
alive and well, and will be here I hope to-night/' 

I trembled at the first e&ectB of this intelligence : he half rose 
up, looked eagerly routfd the apartment, and then sunk back in 
a swoon. 

As soon as he recovered I related our compulsory visit and 
detention at the Heights : I said Heathcliff forced me to go in, 
which was not quite true ; I uttered as little as possible against 
Linton ; nor. did I describe all his fkther's brutal conduct — ^my 
intentions being to add no bitterness, if I could help it, to hiB 
already overflowing* cup. 

He divined that one of his enemy's purposes was to secure 
the personal property as well as the estate to his son, or rathei 
himself; yet why he did not vrait till his decease was a puzzle 
to my master ; because ignorant how nearly he and his nephew 
would quit the world together. 

>However, he felt his will had better be altered; instead 
of leaving Catherine's fortune at her own disposal, he de- 
termined to put it in the hands of trustees, for her use during 
life ; and for her children, if she had any, after her. By that 
means it could not fall to Mr. Heathclifl*, should Linton die. 
Having received his orders I dispatched a man to fetch the 



WUTHEEINO HEIGHTS. 243 

attorney, and four more, proyided wi^ senriceable weapons, to 
demand my young lady of ber jailer. Both parties were de- 
layed very late. The single servant returned first. 

He said Mr. Green, the lawyer, was out when be arrived at 
bis bouse, and be bad to wait two hours for bis re-entrance ; and 
then Mr. Green told him he bad a little business in the village 
that must be done, but be would be at Thrushcross Grange be- 
rore morning. 

The £>ur men came back unaccompanied also. They brought 
word that Catherine was ill ; too ill to quit ber room : and Heath- 
cliff would not suffer them to see ber. 

I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening tu that tale, 
which I would not carry to my master, resolving to take a 
whole bevy up to the Heights, at daylight, and storm it literally, 
unless the prisoner were quietly surrendered to us. 

Her father shall see her, I vowed, and vowed again, if that 
devil be killed on bis own door-stones in trying to prevent it I 

Happily I was spared the journey and the trouble. 

I had gone down stairs at three o'clock to fetch a jug of wa- 
ter ; and was passing through the hall with it in my hand, when 
a sharp knock at the front door made me jump. 

" Oh ! it is Green," I said, recollecting myself; " only Ghreen" 
— and I went on, intending to send somebody else to open it ; 
but the knock was repeated, not loud, and still importunately. 

I put the jug on the bannister, and hastened to admit him 
myself. 

The harvest moon ^one dear outside. It was not the at- 
torney. My sweet little mistress sprung on my neck, sobbing, 

** EUen! Ellen ! is ps^a alive V 

" Yes," I cried, " yes my angel be is. God be thanked, you 
are safe with us again 1" 

She wanted to run, breathless as she was, np-stairs to Mr. 
Linton's room ; but I compelled her to sit down on a chair, and 
made ber drink, and washed her pale face, chafing it into a faint 
color with my apron. Then I said I must go first, and tell of 
ber arrival; iniploring her to say she would be happy with 
young Heatbclin. She stared, but soon comprehending wty I 
counselled her to utter the falsehood, she assured me she would 
not complain. 

I couldn't abide to be presc >t at their meeting. I stood out- 
side the chamber-door a quarter of an hour, and hardly ventured 
near the bed then. 



244 WUTUBRING HEIGHT 8. 

All was composed, however ; Catherine's despair was as si- 
lent as her father's joy. She supported him calmly, in appear- 
ance ; and he fixed on her features his raised eyes, that seemed 
dilating with ecstasy. 

He died blissfully, Mr. Lockwood ; he died so ; kissing her 
cheek, he murmured, » 

" I am going to her, and you, darling child, shall come to us ;" 
and never stirred or spoke again, but continued that rapt, ra- 
diant gaze, till his pulse imperceptibly stopped, and his soul 
depaited. None could have noticed the exact minute of his 
death, it was so entirely without a struggle. 

"Whether Catherine had spent her tears, or whether the grief 
were too weighty to let them flow, she sat there dry-eyed till 
the run rose — she sat till noon, and would still have remained, 
brooding over that death-bed, but I insisted on her coming away 
and taking some repose. 

It was well I succeeded in removing her, for at dinner-time 
appeared the lawyer, having called at Wuthering Heights to 
get his mstructions how to behave. He had sold himself to Mr. 
Heatbcliff, and that was the cause of his delay in obeying my 
master's summons. Fortunately, no thought of worldly affairs 
crossed the latter's mind, to disturb him after his daughter's ar 
rival. 

Mr. Grreen took upon himself to order eveiy thing and every 
body about the place. He gave all the servants but me notice 
to quit. He would have canied his delegated authority to the 
point of insisting that Edgar Linton should not be buried beside 
his wife, but in the chapel with his family. There was the will, 
however, to hinder that, and my loud protestations against any 
infringement of its directions. 

The funeral was hurried over; Catherine, Mrs. Linton Heath 
cliff now, was suffered to stay at the Grange, till her father's 
corpse had quitted it. 

She told me that her anguish had at last spurred Linton to 
incur the risk of liberating her. She heard the men I sent dis- 
puting at the door, and she gathered the sense of Heathcliff's 
answer. It drove her desperate. Linton, who had been con- 
veyed up to the little parlor soon after I left, was terrified into 
fetching the key before his father re-ascended. 

He had the cunning to unlock and re-lock the door, without 
snutting it ; and when he should have gone to bed, he begged 
to sleep with Hareton, and his petition was granted, for once. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 245 

Catherine ^ole out befoi*e break of day. She dare not try 
the doors, lest the dogs should raise an alarm ; she visited the 
empty chambers, and examined their windows; and, luckily, 
lighting on her mother's, she got easily out of its lattice and to 
the ground, by means of the fir-tree close by. Her accomplice 
suffered for his share in the escape, notwithstanding his timid 
contrivances. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

The evenine after the funeral, my young lady and I were 
seated in the lioFary ; now musing mournfully, one of us despair- 
ingly, on our loss ; now venturing conjectures as to the gloomy 
future. 

We had just agreed the best destiny which could await Cath- 
erine would be a permission to continue resident at the Grange, 
at least during Linton's life ; he being allowed to join her there, 
and I to remain as housekeeper. That seemed rather too fa- 
vorable an arrangement to be hoped for ; and yet I did hope, 
and began to cheer up under the prospect of retaining my 
home and my employment, and, above all, my beloved young 
mistress, when a servant — one of the discarded ones, not yet 
departed — ^rushed hastily in, and said, " that devil Heathcliff'* 
was coming through the court — should he fasten the door in 
his face 1 

If we had been mad enough to order that proceeding, we 
had not time. He made no ceremony of knocking, or announc- 
ing his name ; he was master, and availed himself of the mas- 
ter's privilege to walk straight in, without saying a word. 

The sound of our informant's voice directed him to the 
library ; he entered, and, motioning him out, shut the door. 

It was the same room into which he had been ushered, as a 
g^est, eighteen years before ; the same moon shone through the 
window, and the same autumn landscape lay outside. We had 
not yet lighted a candle, but all the apartment was visible, even 
to the portraits on the wall — the splendid head of Mrs. Linton, 
and the graceful one of her husband. 

Heathcliff advanced to the hearth. Time had little altered 



240 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

hifl person either. There was the same man — his dark face 
rather sallower and more composed, his frame a stone or two 
heavier, perhaps, and no other difference. 

Catheiine had risen, with an impulse to dash out, when she 
saw him. 

" Stop !" he said, arresting her by the arm. " No more run 
nings away ! Where would you go 1 I'm come to fetch you 
home ; and I hope you'll be a dutiful daughter, and not encour- 
age my son to furflier disobedience. I was embarrassed how 
to punish him, when I discovered his part in the business — he's 
such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him — ^but you'll see by 
his look that he has received his due. I brought him down one 
evening, the day before yesterday, and just set him in a chair, 
and never touched him afterward. I sent Hareton out, and we 
had the room to ourselves. In two hours I called Joseph to 
carry him up again, and since then my presence is as potent on 
his nerves as a ghost ; and I fancy he sees me often, though I 
am not near. Hareton says he wakes and shrieks in the night 
by the hour together, and calls you to protect him from me ; 
and, whether you like your precious mate or not, you must 
come — ^he's your concern now ; I yield all my interest in him 
to you." 

" Why not let Catherine continue here ]" I pleaded, " and 
send Master Linton to her. As you hate them both, you'd not 
miss them— they can only be a daily plague to your unnatural 
heart." 

" I'm seeking a tenant for the Grange," he answered ; '< and 
I want my children about me, to be sure. Besides, that lass 
owes me her services for her biread i I'm not going to nurture 
her in luxury and idleness aft:er Linton is gone. Make haste 
and get ready now, and don't oblige me to compel you." 

" I shall," said Catherine. " Lmton is all I have to love in 
the world ; and, though you have done what you could to make 
him hatefiil to m^, and me to him, you can not make us hate 
each other ; and I defy you to hurt him when I am by, and I 
defy you to frighten me." 

" "you are a boastful champion," replied Heathcliff ; " but I 
don't like you well enough to hurt him — ^you shall get the full 
benefit of the torment, as long as it lasts. It is not I who will 
make him hateful to you — ^it *is his own sweet spirit. He's as 
bitter as gall at your desertion and its consequences : don't ex- 
pect thanks for this noble devotion. I heard him draw a pleas- 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 247 

ant picture to Zillah of wliat he would do if he were as strong 
as I. The inclination is there, and his yerv weakness will 
sharpen his wits to find a substitute for strength/' 

'' I know he has a bad nature/' said Catherine: ''he's your 
son. But I'm dad I've a better, to fi)rgive it ; and I know he 
loves me, and for that reason I love him. Mr. Heathcliflf, f/au 
have Hchodif to love you ; and, however miserable you make us, 
we shall stiU have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty rises 
from your greater misery ! You are miserable, are you not ? 
Lonely, like the devil, and envious like himi Nobody loves 
you — nobody will cry for you when you die ! I wouldn't be 
you.*' 

Catherine spoke with a kind of dreary triumph : she seemed 
to have made up her mind to enter into the spirit of her future 
family, and draw pleasure from the griefs of her enemies. 

" You shall be sony to be yourself presently," said her father- 
tn-law, " if you stand there another minute. Begone, witch, 
and get your things." 

She scornfully withdrew. 

In her absence, I began to beg for Zillah's place at the 
Heights, offering to resign her mine ; but he would suffer it on 
no account. He bid me be silent, and then, for the first time, 
allowed himself a glance round the room and a look at the pio- 
tures. Having studied Mrs. Linton, he said — 

** 1 shall have that at home. Not because I need it, but*—" 

He turned abruptly to the fire, and continued, with what, fi>r 
lack of a better word, I must call a smile— 

** I'll tell you what I did yesterday ! I got the sexton, who 
was digging Linton's grave, to remove the earth off* her coffin 
lid, and I opened it. I thought, once, I would have stayed 
there, when I saw her face again — it is hers yet — ^he had hard 
work to stir me ; but he saia it would change if the air blew 
on it, and so I struck one side of the coffin loose — and covered 
it up— not Linton''s side, damn him ! I wish he'd been soldered 
in lead — and I bribed the sexton to pull it away, when I'm laid 
there, and slide mine out too, I'll have it made so, and then, by 
the time Linton gets to us, he'll not know which is which !" 

** You were very wicked, Mr. Heathclifi* !" I . exclaimed 
" were you not ashamed to disturb the dead V* . 

" I distui-bed nobody, Nelly," he replied ; ** and 1 gSLve some 
ease to myself I shall be a great deal more comfortable now ; 
and you'U have a better chance of keepfng. me underground. 



tMS W,V THEBIN6 HEIGHTS. 

when I get there. Distnrbed her t No ! she has disturbed me, 
night and day, through eighteen years — ^incessantly — remorse- 
lessly — ^till yesternight — and yesternight, I was tranquil. I 
dreamed I was sleeping the last sleep by that sleeper, with my 
heart stopped and my cheek frozen against hers." 

** And if she had been dissolved into earth, or worse, what 
would you have dreamed of then 1" I said. 

" Of <lissolving with her, and being more happy stiU !" he 
answered. " Do you suppose I dread any change of that sort ? 
I expected such a transformation on raising the lid, but I'm 
better pleased that it should not commence till I share it. Be- 
sides, unless I had received a distinct impression of her passion- 
less features, that strange feeling would hardly have been re- 
moved. It began oddly. You know I was wHd after she died, 
and eternally, from dawn to davm, praying her to return to me 
— her spirit — I have a strong faith in ghosts; I have a conviction 
that they can and do exist among us ! 

" The day she was buried there came a fall of snow. In the 
evening I went to the churchyard. It blew bleak as winter — 
all around was solitary : I didn't fear that her fool of a husband 
would wander up the den so late — and no one else had business 
to brine them there. 

'* Berne alone, and conscious two yards of loose earth was the 
sole bamer between us, I said to myself — 

" • I'll have her in my arms again ! If she be cold, I'll think 
it is this north wind that chills me ; and if she be motionless, it 
is sleep.' 

" I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with 
all my might — ^it scraped the coffin: I fell to work with my 
hands ; the wood commenced cracking about the screws, I was 
on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard 
a sigh n:om some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and 
bending down. * If I can only get this off,' I muttered, * I wish 
they may shovel in the earth over us both !' and I wrenched at 
it more desperately still. There was another sigh close at my 
ear. I appeared to feel the warm breath of it, displacing the 
sleet-laden wind. I knew no living thing in flesh and blood was 
by — ^but as certainly as you perceive the approach to some sub- 
stantial body in the dark, though it can not be discerned, so 
certainly I felt that Cathy was there, not under me, but on the 
earth. 

" A sudden sense of relief flowed from my heart, through 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 249 

eveiy limb. I relinquished my labor of agony, and turned 
consoled at once, unspeakably consoled. Her presence was 
with me ; it remained while I refilled the grave, and led me 
home. You may laugh, if you will, but I was sure I should 
see her there. I was sure she was with me, and I cculd not 
help talking to her. 

" Having reached the Heights, I rushed eagerly to the door. 
It was fastened ; and I remember that accursed Eamshaw and 
my wife opposed my entrance. I remember stopping to kick 
the breath out of him, and then hurrying up-stairs to my room, 
and hers — ^I looked round impatiently — I felt her by me — I 
could almost see her, and yet I catdd not ! I ought to have 
sweat blood then, from the anguish of my yearning, from the 
fervor of my supplications to have but one glimpse ! I had 
not one. She showed herself, as she often was in life, a devil 
to me ! And since then, sometimes more, and sometimes less, 
I've been tha sport of that intolerable torture ! Infernal — 
keeping my nerves at such a stretch, that, if they had not re- 
sembled catgut, they would, long ago, have relaxed to the 
feebleness of Linton's. 

" When I sat in the house with Hareton, it seemed that onr 

fling out, I should meet her ; when I walked on the moors, 
should meet her coming in. When I went from home, I 
hastened to return, she miist be somewhere at the Heights, 
I was certain ! And when I slept in her chamber — I was 
beaten out of that — ^I couldn't lie there ; for the moment I 
closed my eyes, she was either outside the window, or sliding 
back the panels, or entering the room, or even resting her 
darling head on the same pillow as she did when a child. 
And I must open my lids to see. And so I opened and closed 
them a hundred times a night — to be always disappointed ! 
It racked me ! I've often groaned aloud, till that old rascal 
Joseph, no doubt believed that my conscience was playing the 
fiend inside of me. 

" Now since I've seen her, I'm pacified — a little. It was a 
strange way of killing, not by inches, but by fractions of hair- 
breadths, to beguile me with the specter of a hope through 
eighteen years !" 

Mr. Heathclifi* paused, and wiped his forehead— his hp*r 
clung to it, wet with perspiration ; hb eyes were fixed on the 
red embers of the fire ; the brows not contracted, but raised 
next the temples, diminishing the grim aspect of his counte- 



S50 WUTHERING H B I G H T 8. 

nance, "but imparting a peculiar look of trouble, and a painful 
appearance of mental tension toward one absorbing subject. 
He only half addressed me, and I maintained silence-^l did 
not like to hear him talk. 

After a short period, he resumed his meditation on the 
picture, took it down, and leaned it against the sofa to con- 
template it at better advantage ; and while so occupied Cathe- 
rine entered, announcing that she was ready, wbe^ her pony 
should be saddled. 

" Send that over to-morrow," said Heathdiff- to me ; then 
turning to her, he added, " You may do without your pony- 
it is a fine evening, and you'll need no ponies at Wuthering 
Heights, for what journeys you take your own feet will serve 
you. Come along." 

" Grood-bye, Ellen !" whispered my dear little mistress. As 
she kissed me, her lips felt like ice. " Come and see me, EUen, 
don't forget." 

" Take care you do no such thing, Mrs. Dean !" said her 
new Either. " When I wish to speak to you, I'll come here. I 
want none of your prying at my house !" 

He signed her to precede him ; and casting back a look that 
cut my heart, she obeyed. 

I watched them, from the window, walk down the garden. 
HeathclilT fixed Catherine's arm under his, though she duputed 
the act at first, evidently, and with rapid stiided he hurried her 
into the alley, whose trees concealed them. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

I HAVE paid a visit to the Heights, but I have not seen her 
since she left ; Joseph held the door in his hand, when I called 
to ask after her, and wouldn't let me pass. He said Mrs. 
Linton was ^ thrang," and the master was not in. Zillah has 
told me something of the way they go on, otherwise I should 
hardly know who was dead, and who living. 

She thinks Catherine haughty, and does not like her, I can 
guess by her talk. My young lady asked some aid of her, when 
fi^e first came, but Mr. HeathclUT told her to follow her own 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 251 

biumess, and let his daughter-in-law look after herself^ and 
Zillah willingly acquiesced, being a narrow-minded, selfish wo* 
man. Catherine evinced a child's annoyance at this neglect; 
repaid it with contempt, and thus enlisted my inft)rmant among 
her enemies, as securely as if she had done her a great wrong. 

I had a. long talk with Zillah, about six weeks ago, a little 
before you came, one day when wo foregathered on the moor; 
and this is what she told me. 

** The first thing Mrs. Linton did," she said, *' on her s^rrival 
at the Heights, was to run up-stairs without' even wishing good- 
evening to me and Joseph ; she shut herself into Bnton's room, 
and remained till morning — then, while the master and Eam- 
fihaw were at breakfast, she entered the house and asked, all in 
a quiver, if the doctor might be sent for 1 her cousin was very ill. 
• *' ' We know that V answered Heathcliff, ' but his life is not 
worth a farthing, and I won't spend a forthing on him.' 

^ *■ But I can not tell how to do,' she said. ' If nobody will 
help me, he'll die !' 

" * Walk out of the room !' cried the master, * and let me never 
hear a word more about him ! None here care what becomes 
of him ; if you do, act the nurse ; if you do not, lock him up 
and leave him.' 

'' Then she began to bother me, and I said I'd had enough 
plague with the tiresome thing ; we each had our tasks, and 
hers was to wait on Linton. Mr. HeathclifiT bid me leave that 
labor to her. 

'* How they managed together, I can't teU. I &ncy he fret- 
ted a great deal, and moaned hisseln, night and day ; and she 
had precious little rest, one could guess by her white face and 
heavy eye — she sometimes came into the kitchen all wildered 
like, and looked as if she would fain beg assistance ; but I was 
not going to disobey the master — I never dare disobey him, 
Mrs. Dean; and though I thought it wrong that Kenneth should 
not be sent for, it was no concern of mine, either to advise or 
complain ; and I always refused to meddle. 

" Once or twice, afler we had gone to bed, I've happened to 
open my door again, and seen her sitting crying on the stairs' 
top ; and then I've shut myself in quick, for fear of beine moved 
to interfere. I did pity her then, I'm sure ; still I di£i't vnsh 
to lose my place, you know ! 

" At last, one night she. came boldly into my chamber, and 
frightened me out of my wits by saying. 



252 WUTU£RING HEIGHTS. 

" ' Tell Mr. Heathcliff that his son is dying — Vm sure he is 
this time. Get up instantly, and tell him !' 

** Having uttered this speech, she vanished again. I lay a 
quarter of an hour, listening and trembling. Nothing stirred — 
the house was quiet 

** * She's mistaken/ I said to mysel£ • He's got over it. I 
needn't disturb them.' And I began to doze. But my sleep 
was marred a second time, by a sharp ringing of the bell — ^the 
only bell we have, put up on purpose for Linton ; and the mas- 
ter called to me to see what was the matter, and inform them 
that he wouldn't have that noise repeated. 

"I delivered Catherine's message. He cursed to himself, 
and in a few minutes came out vdth a lighted candle, and pro- 
ceeded to their room ; I followed. Mrs. Heathcliff was seated 
by the bedside, with her hands folded on her knees. Her father- 
in-law went up, held the light to Linton's face, looked at him, 
and touched him : afterward he turned to her. 

" * Now — Catherine,' he said, *how do you feel V 

** She was dumb. 

" * How do you feel, Catherine V he repeated. 

" * He's safe, and I'm free,' she answered ; * I should feel well 
—but,' she continued, with a bitterness she couldn't conceal, 
< You have left me so long to sti*uggle against death, alone, that 
I feel and see only death ! I feel like death !' 

" And she looked like it, too ! I gave her a little wine. Hare- 
ton and Joseph, who had been wakened by the ringing, and the 
sound of feet, and heard our talk from outside, now entered. 
Joseph was fain, I believe, of the lad's removal : Hareton seem- 
ed a thought bothered, though he was more taken up with 
staring at Catherine thdn thinking of Linton. But the master 
bid him get off to bed again — we didn't want his help. He af- 
terward made Joseph remove the body to his chamber, and told 
me to return to mine, and Mrs. Heathcliff remained by herself. 

" In the morning he sent me to tell her she must come down 
to breakfast. She had undressed, and appeared going to sleep ; 
and said she was ill — at which I hardly wondered. I informed 
Mr. Heathcliff, and he replied, 

" * Well, let her be till after the funeral, and go up now and 
then to get her what is needful ; and as soon as she seems bet- 
ter, tell me.' " 

Cathy stayed up stairs a fortnight, according to Zillah, who 
visited her twice a day, and would have been rather more 



WUTHBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 253 

friendly, but her attempts at increasing kindness were proudly 
and promptly repelled. Heatbcliff went up once, to show her 
Linton's will He had bequeathed the whole of his and what 
had been her movable property to his father. The poor crea- 
tui*e was threatened or coaxed into that act, during her week's 
absence, when his uncle died. The lands, being a minor, he 
could not meddle with. However, Mr. Heathcliff has claimed, 
and kept them in his wife's right, and his also— I suppose legally, 
at any rate Catherine, destitute of cash and fiiends, can not dis- 
turb his possession. 

** Nobody," said Zillah, " ever approached her door, except 
that once, but I ; and nobody asked any thing about her. The 
first occasion of her coming down into the house was on a Sun- 
day afternoon. 

" She had cried out, when I carried up her dinner, that she 
couldn't bear any longer being in the cold ; and I told her the 
master was going to Thrushcross Grange ; and Eamshaw and 
I needn't hinder her from descending ; so, as soon as she heard 
Heathclifif's horse trot off, she made her appearance, donned in 
bls^ck, and her yellow curls combed back behind her ears — as 
plain as a Quaker she couldn't comb them out. Joseph and I 
generally go to chapel on Sundays." (The kirk, you know, has 
no minister, now, explained Mrs. Dean, and they call the Meth- 
odists' or Baptists' place, I can't say which it is, at Gimmerton, 
a chapel.) " Joseph had gone," she continued, " but I thought 
proper to bide at home. Young folks are always the better for 
an elder's overlooking, and Hareton, with all his bashfulness, 
isn't a model of nice behavior. I let him know that his cousin 
would very likely sit with us, and she had been always used to 
see the Sabbath respected, so he had as good leave his guns 
and bits of in-door work alone, while she staid. 

" He colored up at the news ; and cast his eyes over his hands 
and clothes. The train-oil and gunpowder were shoved out of 
sight in a minute. I saw he meant to give her his company ; 
and I guessed, by his way, he wanted to be presentable ; so, 
laughing as I durst not laugh when the master is by, I offered 
to help him, if he would, and joked at his confusion. He grew 
sullen, and began to swear. 

" Now, Mrs. Dean," she went on, seeing me not pleased by 
her manner, " you happen think your young lady too fine for 
Mr. Hareton, and happen you're right — I own, I should love well 
to bring her pride a peg lower. And what will all her learning 



254 WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS. 

knd all her daintiness do for her, nowl < She's as poor as you, 
or I — poorer. I'll be bound, you're saving — and I'm doing my 
little all that road." 

Hareton allowed Zillah to give him her aid ; and she flattered 
him into a good humor ; so, when Catherine came, half forget- 
ting her former insults, he tried to make himself agreeable, by 
the housekeeper's account 

** Missis walked in," she said, '* as chill as an icicle, and as 
high as a princess. I got up and offered her my seat in the 
arm-chair. No, she turned up her nose at my civility. Eam- 
sharw rose too, and bid her come to the settle, and sit close by 
the fire ; he was sure she was starved. 

" * I've been starved a month and more,' she answered, rest- 
ing on the word, as scornful as she could. 

** And she got a chair for herself, and placed it at a distance 
from both of us. Having sat till she was warm, she began to 
look round, and discovered a number of books in the dresser ; 
she was instantly upon her feet again, stretching to reach them, 
but they were too high up. Her cousin, after watching her en- 
deavors a while, at last summoned courage to help her; she 
held her frock, and he filled it with the first that cam^ to hand. 

*' That was a great advance for the lad— she didn't thank him ; 
still he felt g^tified that she had accepted his assistance, and 
ventured to stand behind, as she examined them, and even to 
stoop and point out what struck his &ncy in certain old pictures 
which they contained — nor was he daunted by the saucy style 
in which she jerked the page from his finger; he contented 
himself with going a bit farther back, and looking at her, instead 
of the book. 

** She continued reading, or seeking for something to read. 
His attention became, by degrees, quite centered in the study 
of her thick, silky curls — ^her face he couldn't see, and she 
couldn't see him. And, perhaps, not quite awake to what he 
did, but attracted like a child to a candle, at last he proceeded 
from staring to touching; he put out his hand and stroked one 
curl, as gently as if it were a bird. He might have stuck a 
knife into her neck, she started round in such a taking. 

" * Get away, this moment ! How dare you touch me 1 Why 
are you stopping there V ^e cried, in a tone of disgust. ' I 
can't endure you ! I'll go up-stairs again, if you come near me.' 

** Mr. Hareton recoiled, looking as foolish as he could do ; he 
eat down in the settle, very quiet, and she continued turning over 



WU THERIN6 H E I O H T 9. 255 

her volumes another haliP-hour — fiaally, Eamshaw crossed over 
and whispered to me. 

" * Will you ask her to read to us, Zillah 1 I'm stalled of do- 
iag naught — and I dp like — I could like to hear her ! dunnot say 
I wanted it, but ask of yourseln.' 

" ' Mr. Hareton wishes you would read to us, ma'am,' I said, 
immediately. * He'd take it very kind — he'd be much obliged.' 

" She frowned ; and, looking up, answered— 

" * Mr. Hareton, and the whole set of you, will be good enough 
to understand that I reject any pretense at kindness you have 
the hypocrisy to offer ! I despise you, and will have nothing 
to say to any of y6u ! When I would have given my life for one 
kind word, even to see one of your faces, you all kept off*. But 
I won't complain to you ! I'm driven down here by the cold, 
not either to amuse you, or enjoy your society.' 

" 'What could I ha' done V began Eamshaw. * How was I 
to blame V 

" ' Oh ! you are an exception,' answered Mrs. HeathcliC * I 
never missed such a concern as you.' 

'' ' But I offered more than once, and asked,' he said, kindling 
up at her pertness — ' I asked Mr. Heathcliffto let me wake for 
you — ' 

" * Be silent ! I'll go out of doors, or any where, rather than 
have your disagreeable voice in my ear !' said my lady. 

" Hareton muttered, she might go to hell, for him ! and un- 
sHnging his gun, restrained himself from his Sunday occupations 
no longer. He talked now, freely enough ; and she presently 
saw fit to retreat to her solitude : but the frost had set in, and, 
in spite of her pride, she was forced to condescend to our com- 
pany more and more. However, I took care there should be 
no further Bcoming at my good nature. Ever since, I've been 
as stiff* as herself; and she has no lover or liker among us, and 
she does not deserve one— for, let them say the least word to 
her, and she'll curl back without respect of any one ! She'll 
snap at the master himself, and as good as dares him to thrash 
her ; and the more hurt she gets, the more venomous she grows." 

At first, on hearing this account from Zillah, I determined to 
leave my situation, take a cottage, and get Catherine to come 
and live with me ; but Mr. Heathcliff* would as soon permit that 
as he would set up Hareton in an independent house : and I can 
see no remedy at present, unless she could marry again ; and 
that ichMne, it does not come within my province to arrange. 



256 WUTHBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 

Thus ended Mrs. Dean's story. Notwithstanding the doctor's 
prophecy, I am rapidly recovering strength, and though it be 
only the second week in January, I propose getting out on 
horseback in a day or two, and riding over to Wuthering 
Heights, to inform my landlord that I shall spend the next six 
months in London ; and, if he likes, be may look out for anodier 
tenant to take the place after October. I would not pass another 
winter here for much. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Yesterday was bright, calm, and fi-osty. I went to the 
Heights, as I proposed ; my housdkeeper entreated me to bear 
a htde note from her to her young lady, and I did not refuse, 
for the worthy woman was not conscious of any thing odd in 
her request 

The £x>nt door stood open, but the jealous gate was fastened, 
as at my last visit; I knocked and invoked Eamshaw from 
among tne garden beds ; he unchained it and I entered. The 
fellow is as handsome a rustic as need be seen. I took particu- 
lar notice of him this time ; but then he does his best, apparent- 
ly, to make the least of his advantages. 

I asked if Mr. Heathcli£f were at home 1 He answered, no ; 
but he would be in at dinner-time. It was eleven o'clock, and 
1 announced my intention of going in and waiting for him, at 
which he immediately flung down his tools, and accompanied 
me, in the office of watch-dog, not as a substitute for the host. 

We entered together ; Catherine was there, making herself 
useful in preparing some vegetables for the approaching meal ; 
she looked more sulky and less spirited than when I had seen 
her first. She hardly raised her eyes to notice me, and con- 
tinued her employment with the same disregard to common 
forms of politeness as before, never returning my bow and good- 
morning by the slightest acknowledgment. 

** She does not seem so amiable," I thought, " as Mrs. Dean 
would persuade me to believe. She's a beauty, it is true, but 
not an angel." 

Eamshaw surlily bid her remove her things to the kitchen. 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 25*7 

" Remove them yourself," she said, pushing them from her, 
as soon as she had done ; and retiring to a stool hy the window, 
where she began to carve figures of birds and beasts, out of the 
turnip-parings in her lap. I approached her, pretending to de- 
sire a view of the garden, and, as I fancied, adroitly dropped 
Mrs. Dean's note upon her knee, unnoticed by Hareton, but she 
asked aloud— 

" What is that V* and chucked it off. 

" A letter from your old acquaintance, the housekeeper at the 
Grange," I answered, annoyed at her exposing my kind deed, 
and fearful lest it should be imagined a missive of my own. 
She would gladly have gathered it up at this information, but 
Hareton beat her ; he seized and put it in his waistcoat, saying 
Mr. Heathcliff should look at it first. 

Thereat, Catherine silently turned her face from us, and, very 
stealthily, drew out her pocket-handkerchief and applied it to 
her eyes ; -and her cousin, after struggling a while to keep down 
his sofler feelings, pulled out the letter and flung it on the floor 
beside her, as ungraciously as he could. Catherine caught and 
perused it eagerly; then she put a few questions to me con- 
cerning the inmates, rational and irrational, of her former home, 
and, gazing toward the hills, murmured in soliloquy — 

" I should like to be riding Minny down there ! I should 
like to be climbing up there ! Oh, I'm tired I — I'm stalled, 
Hareton !" 

And she leaned her pretty head back against the sill, with 
half a yawn and half a sigh, and lapsed into an aspect of ab- 
stracted sadness, neither caring nor knowing whether we re- 
marked her. 

" Mrs. Heathcliff," I said, after sitting some time mute, " you 
are not aware that I am an acquaintance of youre ; so intimate, 
that I think it strange you won't come and i^eak to me. My 
housekeeper never wearies of talking about and praising you ; 
and she'll be greatly disappointed if I return with no news of, 
or from you, except that you received her letter, and said 
nothing !" 

She appeared to wonder at this speech and asked, 

« Does Ellen like you 1" 

** Yes, very well," I replied unhesitatingly. 

" You must tell her," she continued, " that I would answer 
her letter, but I have no materials for writings not even a book 
from which I mi^t tear a lea£" 



258 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

" No books !" I exclaimed. ** How do you contrive to live 
here without them 1 if I may take the liberty to inquire. 
Though provided with a large library, I'm firequently very duE 
at the GrraDge--take my h^oks away, and I should be des- 
perate !" 

'' I was always reading, when I had them ;" said Catherine, 
^ and Mr. HeathcHff never reads ; so he took it into his head to 
destroy my books. I have not had a glimpse of one for weeks. 
Only once, I searched through Joseph's store of theology, to 
his great irritation : and once, Hareton, I came upon a secret 
stock in your room — some Latin and Greek, and some tales and 
poetry ; aU old friends. I brought the last here — and you 
gathered them, as a magpie gathers silver spoons, for the mere 
love of stealing ! Th^ are of no use to you — or else you con- 
cealed them in the bad spirit, that as you can not enjoy them, 
nobody else shall. Perhaps your envy counseled Mr. Heath- 
cliff to rob me of my treasures 1 But, I've most of them written 
on my brain and printed in my heart, and you can not deprive 
me of those!" 

Eamshaw blushed crimson, when his cousin made this reve- 
lation of his jprivate literary accumulations, and stammered an 
indignant denial of her accusations. 

*' Mr. Hareton is desirous of increasing his amount of knowl- 
edge," I said, coming to his rescue. *' He is not envious but 
emulous of your attainments. He'll be a clever scholar in a few 
years !" 

''And he wants me to sink into a dunce, meantime," an- 
swered Catherine. '' Yes, I hear him trying to spell and read 
to himself, and pretty blunders he makes ! I wish you would 
repeat Chevy Chase, as you did yesterday. It was extremely 
funny ! I heard you ; and I heard you turning over the dic- 
tionary, to seek out the hard words, and then cursing because 
you couldn't read their explanations !" 

The young man evidently thought it too bad that he should 
be laughed at for hb ignorance, and then laughed at for trying 
to remove it I had a similar notion, and, remembering Mrs. 
Dean's anecdote of his first attempt at enliehtening the dark- 
ness in which he had been reared, I observed, 

'* But, Mrs. Heathcliff, we have eaph had a commencement, 
and each stumbled and tottered on the threshold, and had our 
teachers scorned, instead of aiding us, we should stumble and 
totter yet." 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 259 

" Oh !" she replied, " I don't wish to limit his acquirements*— 
etiU, he has no right to appropriate what is mine, and make it 
ridiculous to me with his vile mistakes and mis-pronunciatiens ! 
Those books, both prose and verse, were consecrated to me by 
other associations, and I hate to have them debased and pro- 
faned in his mouth ! Besides, of all, he has selected my favorite 
pieces that I love the most to repeat, as if out of deliberate 
malice 1" 

Hareton's chest heaved in silence a minute ; he labored undei 
a si^vere sense of mortification and wrath, which it was no easy 
task to suppress. 

I rose, and from a gentlemanly idea of relieving his embar- 
rassment, took up my station in the door-way, surveying the ex- 
ternal prospect, as I stood. He followed my example, and lefk 
the room, but presently reappeared, bearing nalf-a-dozen 
volumes in his hands, which he threw into Catherine's lap, ex- 
claiming, 

" Take them ! I never want to hear, or read, or think of 
them again !" 

" I won't have them, now !" she answered. " I shall connect 
them with you, and hate them !" 

She <n>ened ope that had obviously been often turned over, 
and read a porrion in the drawling tone of a beginner ; then 
laughed, and threw it firom her. 

"And listen!" she continued provokingly, commencing a 
verse of an old ballad in the same fashion. 

But his self-love would endure no fuither torment — I heard^ 
and not altogether disapprovingly, a manual check given to her 
saucy tongue. The little wretch had done her utmost to hurt 
her cousin's sensitive though uncultivated feelings, and a physical 
argument was the only mode he had of balancing the account, 
and repaying its effects on the inflicter. 

He afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the 
fire. I read in his countenance what anguish it was to offer 
that sacrifice to spleen. I fancied that as they consumed, he 
recalled the pleasure they had already imparted ; and the tri- 
umph and ever increasing pleasure he had anticipated fix>m 
them — and I fancied I guessed the incitement to his secret 
studies, also. He had been content with daily labor and rough 
animal enjoyments, till Catherine crossed his path. Shame at 
her scorn and hope of her approval were his nrst prompters to 
higher pursuits ; and instead of guarding him from one, and 



260 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

winning him the other, his endeavors to raise himself had pro- 
daoed ji^ the contrary result 

"•Yes, that's all the good that such a brute as you can get 
from them !" cried Catherine, sucking her damaged lip, and 
watching the conflagration with indignant eyes. 

" You'd better hold your tongue now !'* he answered fiercely. 
And his agitation precluding fimher speech, he advanced hastily 
to the entrance, \^ere I made way for him to pass. But, ere 
he had crossed the door-stones, Mr. Heathcliff, coming up the 
causeway, encountered him, and laying hold of his shoulder, 
asked, 

" What's to do now, my lad 1" 

** Naught, naught !" he said, and broke away, to enjoy his 
grief and anger m solitude. Heathdiff gazed after him, and 
sighed. 

'' It will be odd, if I thwart myself!" he muttered, uncon- 
scious that I was behind him. " But when I look for his father 
in his face, I find her every day more ! How the devil is he 
so like 1 I can hardly bear to see him." 

He bent his eyes to the ground, and walked moodily in. 
There was a restless, anxious expression in his countenance I 
had never remarked there before, and he looked sparer in per- 
son. His daughter-in-law on perceiving him through the 
window, inmiediately escaped to the kitchen, so that I remained 
alone. 

" I'm glad to see you out of doors again, Mr. Lockwood," 
he said in reply to my greeting, ** from selfish motives partly, 
I don't think 1 could res^ly supply your loss in this desolation. 
I've wondered, more than once, what brought you here." 

" An idle whim, I fear, sir," was my answer, " or else an 
idle whim is going to spirit me away. I shall set out for 
London, next week, and I must give you warning, that I feel 
no disposition to retain Thrushcross Grange beyond the twelve- 
month I agreed to rent it. I believe I shall not live there any 
more. 

" Oh, indeed ! you're tired of being banished from the world, 
are you V* he said. " But if you be coming to plead off pay- 
ing for a place you won't occupy, your journey is useless — I 
never relent in exacting my due from any one." 

" I'm coming to plead off nothing about it !" I exclaimed, 
considerably irritated. " Should you wish it, I'll settle with 
you now," and I drew my notebook from my pocket. 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 261 

" No, no," he replied, coolly, " you'll leave sufficient behind 
to cover your debts, if you fail to return. I'm not in such a 
hurry — sit down and take you dinner with us — a guest that is 
safe from repeating his visit,^ can generally be made vfrelcome. 
Catherine ! bring the things in — ^where are you V* 

Catherine reappeared, bearing a tray of knives and forks. 

" You may get your dinner with Joseph," muttered Heath- 
cliflf aside, " and remain in the kitchen till he is gone." 

She obeyed his directions very punctually — ^perhaps she had 
no temptation to transgress. Living among clowns and misan- 
thropists, she probably can not appreciate a better class of 
people, when she meets them. 

With Mr. Heathcliff, grim and saturnine, on one hand, and 
Hareton absolutely dumb, on the other, I made a somewhat 
cheerless meal, and bid adieu eai-Iy, I would have departed 
by the back way, to get a last glimpse of Catheiine and annoy 
old Joseph ; but Hareton received orders to lead up my horse, 
and my host himself escorted me to the door, so I could not ful- 
fill my vrish. 

" How dreaiy life gets over in that house !" I reflected, while 
riding down the road. " What a realization of something more 
romantic than a fairy tale it would have been for Mrs. Linton 
Heathcliff, had sl^ and I struck up an attachment^ as her good 
nurse desired, aim migrated together into the stirring atmos- 
phere of the town!" 



CHAPTER XXXn. 

1802. — This September, I was invited to devastate the moors 
of a fiiend, in the noith ; and, on my journey to his abode, I 
unexpectedly came vdthin fifteen miles of Gimmerton. The 
hostler, at a roadside public-house, was holding a pail of water 
to refi-esh my horses, when a cart of very green oats, newly 
reaped, passed by, and he remarked — 

" Yon*s frough Gimmerton, nah ! They're alias three vnck' 
after other folk vrV ther harvest." 

" Gimmerton V* I repeated, my residence in that locality had 
already grown dim and dreamy. " Ah ! I know ! How far is 
it fi-om this V 



262 WUTHBRIN6 HEIGHTS. 

'' Happen fourteen mile' o'er th' hills, and a rough road/' he 
answered. 

A sudden impulse seized- me to visit Thrushcross Grange. 
It was scarcely noon, and I conceived that I might as well pass 
the night under my own roof as in an inn. Besides, J could 
spare a day easily, to arrange matters with my landlord, and . 
thus save myself the trouhle of invading the neighborhood again. 

Having rested a while, I directed my servant to inquire the 
way to the village ; and, with great fatigue to our beasts, we. 
managed the distance in some three hours. I left him there, 
and proceeded down the vaUey alone. The gray church 
looked grayer, and the lonely churchyard lonelier. I distin- 
guished a moor sheep cropping the short turf on die graves. 
It was sweet, warm weather — too warm for traveling ; but the 
heat did not hinder me from enjoying the delight^ scenery 
above and below; had I seen it nearer August^ I am sure it 
would have tempted me to waste a month among its solitudes. 
In winter nothing more dreary, in summer nothing more 
divine, than those glens shut in by hills, and those blufi^ bold 
swells of heath. 

I reached the Gtrange before sunset, and knocked for ad- 
mittance ; but the family had retreated into the back premises, 
I judged by one thin, blue wreath curling from the kitchen 
clumney, and they did not hear. I rode into the court. Under 
the porch a girl of nine or ten sat knitting, and an old woman 
rechned on the horse-steps, smoking a meditative pipe. 

'* Is Mrs. Dean within?" I demanded of the dame. 

" Mistress Dean I Nay !" she answered, " shoo doeffli't bide 
here ; shoe's up at th' Heights." 

" Are you the housekeeper, then I" I continued. 

*' Eea, aw keep th' hause," she replied. 

"Well, I'm Mr. Lockwood, the master. Are there any 
rooms to lodge me in 1 I wish to stay here all night." 

"T' maister!" she cried in astonishment, "Whet, whoiver 
knew yah wur coming 1 Yah sud ha' send word! They's 
nowt norther dry nor mensful abaht t' place— nowt there isn't!" 

She threw down her pipe and bustled in, the girl followed 
and I entered too ; soon perceiving that her report was true 
and, moreover, that I haa almost upset her wits by my unwel- 
come apparition. 

I bid her be composed — I would go out for a walk; and, 
meantime, she must try to prepare a comer of a sitting-room 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 263 

for me to sup in, and a bed-room to sleep in. No sweeping 
and dusting, only good fires and dry sheets were necessary. 
She seemed willing to do her best; though she thrust the 
hearth-brush into the grate in mistake for the poker ; and mal-* 
appropriated several other articles of her cran: : but I retired, 
confiding in her energy for a resting-place against my return. 

Wuthering Heights was the gofid of my proposed excuraion. 
- An after-thought brought me back, when I had left the court. 

" All well at the Heights V* I inquired of the woman. 

"Eea, Tr owt aw knaw!" she answered, skurrying away 
with a pan of hot cinders. 

I would have asked why Mrs. Dean had deserted the 
Grange ; but it was impossible to delay her at such a crisis, 
so I turned away and made ray exit, rambling leisurely along 
with the glow of a sinking sun behind, and the mild glory of a 
rising moon in ftt>nt ; one fading and the other brightening, as 
I quitted the park and climbed the stony by-road branching 
off to Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling. Before I arrived in sight 
of it, all that remained of day was a beamless, amber light 
along the west ; but I could see every pebble on the path, and 
every blade of grass, by that splendid moon. 

I had neither to climb the gate, nor to knock — it yielded to 
my hand. That is an improvement, I thought. And I noticed 
another, by the aid of my nostrils ; a fragrance of stocks and 
wall flowers, wafted on the air from among the fruit trees. 

Both doors and lattices were open ; and yet, as is usually the 
case in a coal district, a fine, red fire illuminated the chimney ; 
the comfort which the eye derives from it renders the extra heat 
endurable. But the house of Wuthering Heights is so large, 
that the inmates have plenty of space for withdrawing out of its 
influence ; and, accordingly, what inmates there were had sta- 
tioned themselves not far from one of the windows. I could 
both see them and hear them talk before I entered ; and looked 
and listened in consequence, being moved thereto by a mingled 
sense of curiosity and envy, that grew as I lingered. 

** Con-trary /** said a voice, as sweet as a silver bell. " That 
for the third time, you dunce ! I'm not going to tell you again. 
Recollect, or I pull your hair !" 

**Contraiy, then," answered another, in deep, but softened 
tones. " And now, kiss me, for minding so wefl.*' 

" No, read it over first correctly, without a single mistake." 

The male speaker began to read — ^he v^ras a young man, re- 
spectably dressed, and seated at a table, having a book before 



264 VVUTU BRING HEIGHTS. 

him. Hb handsome features glowed with pleasure, and his 
eyes kept impatiently wandering from the page to a small white 
hand over his shoulder, which recalled him by a smart slap on 
the cheek, whenever its owner detected such signs of inattention. 

Its owner stood behind ; her light shining ringlets blending at 
intervals with his brown locks, as she bent to superintend his 
studies; and her face— it was lucky he. could not see her face, 
or he would never have been so steady — I could, and I bit my 
lip in spite, at having thrown away the chance I might have 
had, of doing something besides staring at its smiling beauty. 

The task was done, not free from further blunders, but the 
pupil claimed a reward, and received at least five kisses, which, 
however, he generously returned. Then they came to the door, 
and from their conversation I judged they were about to issue 
out and have a walk on the moors. I supposed I should be 
condemned in Hareton Eamshaw's heart, if not by his mouth, 
to the lowest pit in the infernal regions, if I showed my unfor 
tunate person in his neighborhood then : and feeling very mean 
and malignant, I skulked round to seek refuge in the kitchen. 
There was unobstructed admittance on that side also ; and at 
the door sat my old friend Nelly Dean, sewing, and singing a 
song, which was often interrupted from within, by harsh words 
of scorn and intolerance, uttered in far from musical accents. 

" Aw'd rayther, by th' haulf, hev 'em swearing i* my lugs 
frough mom tuh neeght, nur hearken yah, hahsiver !" said the 
tenant of the kitchen, in answer to an unheard speech of Nelly's. 
" It's a blazing shaime, ut aw cannut oppen t' Blessed Book, 
bud yah set up them glories tuh Sattan, un' all t' flaysome 
wickednesses ut iver wer bom iutuh t' warld ! Oh ! yah're a 
raight nowt ; un' shoe's another ; un' that poor lad 'ull be lost, 
atween ye. Poor lad !" he added, with a groan, " he's witched, 
aw'm saitin on't ! Oh, Lord, judge 'em, for they's norther law 
nur justice amang wer rullers !" 

** No ! or we should be sitting in flaming fagots, I suppose," 
retorted the singer. " But wisht, old man, and read your Bible, 
like a Christian, and never mind me. This is ' Fairy Annie's 
Wedding' — ^a bonny tune — it goes to a dance." 

Mrs. Dean was about to recommence when I advanced ; and^ 
recognizing me directly, she jumped to her feet, crying — 

" Why, bless you, Mr. Lockwood, how could you think of 
returning in this way 1 All's shut up at Thrushcross Grange. 
You should have given us notice." 

** I've airanged to be accommodated there for as long as ] 



WUTHBRIN6 'HEIGHTS. 265 

flhall stay/' I answered. ** I depart again to-morrow. And 
how are you transplanted here» Mrs. Dean ? tell me that" 

'' Zillah left, and Mr. Heathcliflf wished me to come, soon 
after you went to London, and stay till you returned. But step 
in, pray. Have you walked from Gimmerton this evening V* 

** From the Grange," I replied ; " and, while they make me 
lodging room there, I want to finish my business with your 
master — I don't thidk of having another opportunity in a hurry." 

" What business, sir 1" said Nelly, conducting me into the 
house. " He's gone out at present, and veon't return soon." 

" About the rent," I answered. 

'' Oh ! then it is vdth Mrs. Heathcliff you must settle," she 
observed, " or rather with me. She has not learned to manage 
her affairs yet, and I act for her — there's nobody else." 

I looked surprised. 

" Ah ! you have not heard of Heathclififs death, I see," she 
continued. 

*' Heathcliffdead ! " I exclaimed, astonished. '' How long ago ?" 

'' Three months since. But sit down, and let me take your 
hat, and I'll tell you all about it. Stop, you have had nothing 
to eat, have you f" 

'* I want nothing. I have ordered supper at home. You sit 
down too. I never dreamed of his dying. Let me hear how it 
came to pass. You say you don't expect them back for some 
time^— the young people 1" 

" No. I have to scold them every evenine for their late itim- 
bles ; but they don't care for me. At least, have a drink of our 
old ale : it will do you good — you seem weary." 

She hastened to fetch it before I could refuse ; and I heard 
Joseph asking whether ''it wam't a crying scandal that she 
should have fellies at her time of life ? And then, to get them 
jocks out uh t' maister's cellar i He ftiir shaamed to 'bide still 
and see it." 

She did not stay to retaliate, but re-entered in a minute, bear- 
ing a creaming silyer pint, whose contents I lauded with becom- 
ing earnestness ; and afterward she furnished me with the sequel 
of HeathcliflTs history. He had a '' queer" end, as she express- 
ed it. 

I was summoned to Wuthering Heights vdthin a fortnight of 
your leaving, she said, and I obeyed jojroUy for Catherine's sake. 

My first interview with her grieved and shocked me, she had 
altei^d so much since our separation. Mr. HeathcM did not 

M 



266 wuTH£]ii«ro heights. 

explain bis reasons for taking a new mind about my coming 
here ; he only told me he wanted me, and he was tired of see- 
ing Catherine ; I must make the little parlor my sitting nxnn, 
and keep her with me. It was enough if he were obliged to 
see her once or twice a day. 

She seemed pleased at this arrangement ; and, by degrees, I 
smufl^led over a great number of books and other articles that 
had £nined her amusement at the Grange, and flattered myself 
we should get on in tolerable comfort. 

The delusion did not last long. Catherine, contented at first, 
in a brief space grew irritable and restless. For one thing, she 
was forbidden to more oat of the garden, and it fretted her sadly 
to be confined to its narrow bounds as spring drew on ; for an- 
other, in following the house, I was forced to quit her frequently, 
and she complained of loneliness ; she preferred quarreling with 
Joseph in the kitchen to sitting at peace in her solitude. 

" I did not nund their skirmishes ; but Hareton was often 
obliged to seek the kitch^i also, when the master wanted to 
have the house to himself; and though, in the beginning, she 
either left it at his approach, or quietly joined in my occupations, 
and shunned romancing or addressing him — and though he was 
always as sullen and silent as possible— afler a while she changed 
her behavior, and became incapable of letting him alone. Talk- 
ing at him ; commenting on his stupidity and idleness ; express- 
ing her wonder how he could endure the life he lived— how he 
could sit a whole evening, staring into the fire and dozing. 

** He's just like a dog, is he not, EUen V* she once observed, 
" or a cart-horse ] He does his work, eats his food, and sleeps, 
eternally ! What a blank, dreary mind he must have ! Do you 
ever dream, Hareton 1 And, if you do, what is it about? But, 
you can't speak to me !" 

Then she looked at him; but he would neither open his 
mouth, nor look again. 

" He's perhaps, dreaming now," she continued. He twitched 
his shoulder as Juno twitches hers. Ask him, Ellen." 

*' Mr. Hareton will ask the master to send you up stairs, if 
you don't behave !" I said. He had not only twitched his 
shoulder, but clenched his fist, as if tempted to use it. 

" I know why Hareton never speaks when I am in the kitch- 
en," she exclainaed, on another occasion. " He is afraid I shall 
laugh at him. Ellen, what do you think 1 He liegan to teach 
himself to read once ; and, because I laughed, he burned his 
books, and dropped it — was he not a fool i" 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 267 

" Were not you naughty 1" I said ; '* answer me that" 

" Perhaps 1 was," she went on, " but I did not expect him 
to be so silly. Hareton, if I gave you a book, would you take 
it now 1 riltry!" 

She placed one she had been perusing on his hand ; he flung 
it offf and muttered if she did not give over he'd break her neck. 

** Well, I shall put it here," she said, " in the table drawer, 
and am going to bed." 

Then she whispered me to watch whether he touched it, and 
depaited. But he would not come near it, and so I informed 
her in the morning, to her great disappointment I saw she was 
sorry for his persevering sulkincss and indolence — her conscience 
reproved her for frightening him off improving himself. She 
had done it effectually. 

But her ingenuity was at work to remedy the injury ; while I 
ironed, ocpursued other stationary employments I could not well 
do in the parlor — she would bring some pleasant volume, and 
read it aloud to me. When Hareton was there, she generally 
paused in an interesting part, and left the book lying about — 
that she did repeatedly ; but he was as obstinate as a mule, and, 
instead of snatching at her bait, in wet weather he took to smo- 
king with Joseph, and they sat like automata, one on each side 
of the fire, the elder happily too deaf to understand her wicked 
nonsense, as he would have called it ; the younger doing his 
best to seem to disregard it On fine evenings the latter followed 
his shooting expeditions, and Catherine yawned and sighed, and 
teased me to talk to her, and ran off into the court or garden, 
the moment I began; and, as a last resource, cried, and said 
she was tired of living, her life was useless. 

Mr. Heathcliff, who grew more and more disinclined to soci- 
ety, had almost banished Eamshaw out of his apartment Owing 
to an accident, at the commencement of March, he became for 
some days a fixture in the kitchen. His gun burst while out on 
the hills by himself; a splinter cut his arm, and he lost a good 
deal of blood before he could reach home. The consequence 
was, that, perforce, he was condemned to the fireside and tran- 
quillity till he made it up again. 

It suited Catherine to have him there ; at any rate, it made 
her hate her room up stau-s more than ever ; and she would 
compel me to find out business below, that she might accompa- 
ny me 

On Easter Monday, Joseph went to Gimmerton fair with 
some cattle ; and in ike afternoon I was busy getting up linen 



268 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

in the kitchen. Eamshaw sat, morose as usual, at the chimney 
corner, and my little mistress was beguiling an idle hour with 
drawing pictures on the window panes, varying her amusement 
by smothered bursts of songs, and whispering ejaculations, and 
quick glances of annoyance and impatience in the direction of 
her cousin, who steadfastly smoked, and looked into the grate. 

At a notice that I could do with her no longer, intercepting 
my light, she removed to the hearth-stone. I bestowed little at- 
tention on her proceedings, but, presently, I heard her begin — 

" I've found out, Hareton, that I want — that I'm glad — that 
I should like you to be my cousin, now, if you had not grown 
so cross to me, and so rough." Hareton returned no answer. 

** Hareton, Hareton, Hareton ! do you hear ]" she continued. 

" Get off wi' ye !" he growled, with uncompromising gruffness. 

'* Let me take that pipe," she said, cautiously advancing her 
hand, and absti*acting it from his mouth. 

Before he could attempt to recover it, it was broken and be- 
hind the fire. He swore at her and seized another. 

** Stop," she cried, " you must listen to me, first ; and I can't 
speak while those clouds are floating in my face." 

" Will you go to the devil !" he exclaimed, " and let me be 1" 

" No," she persisted, " I won't. I can't tell what to do to 
make you talk to me, and you are determined not to under- 
stand. When I call you stupid, I don't mean any thing — I 
don't mean that I despise you. Come, you shall take notice of 
me, Hareton — you are my cousin and you shall own me." 

" I shall have naught to do wi' you, and your mucky pride, 
and your damned, mocking tricks !" he answered. " I'll go to 
hell, body and soul, before I look sideways after you again! 
side out of t' gait, now; this minute !" 

Catherine frowned, and retreated to the window-seat, chew- 
ing her lip, and endeavoring, by humming an eccentric tune, to 
conceal a growing tendency to sob. 

" You should be friends with your cousin, Mr. Hareton," I 
interrupted, " since she repents of her sauciness ! it would do 
you a great deal of good — it would make you another man, to 
have her for a companion." 

" A companion 1" he cried ; " when she hates me, and does 
not think me fit to wipe her shoon ! Nay, if it made me a king, 
I'd not be scorned for seeking her good will any more." 

" It is not I who hate you, it is you who hate me !" wept 
Cathy, no longer disguising her trouble. " You hate me as 
much as Mr. Heathcliff does, and more." 



WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 269 

"You're a damned liar," began Eamsbaw; "why have I 
made him angry by taking your part, then, a hundred times 1 and 
that, when you sneered at, and despised me, and — . Go on 
plaguing me, and I'll step in yonder, and say you worried mo 
out of the kitchen!" 

" I didn't know you took my part," she answered, drying her 
eyes ; " and I was miserable and bitter at every body*; but, now 
I thank you, and beg you to forgive me ; what can I do besides V* 

She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand. 

He blackened, and scowled like a thunder-cloud, and kept his 
fists resolutely clenched, and his gaze fixed on the ground. 

Catherine, by instinct, must have divined it was obdurate 
perversity, and not dislike, that prompted this dogged conduct ; 
for, after remaining an instant, undecided, she stooped, and im- 
pressed on his cheek a gentle kiss. The little rogue thought I 
bad not seen her, and, drawing back, she took her former sta- 
tion by the window, quite demurely. I shook my head reprov- 
ingly ; and then she blushed, and whispered, 

" Well, what should I have done, Ellen 1 He wouldn't shake 
hands, and he wouldn't look. I must show him some way that 
J like him — ^that I want to be friends." 

Whether the kiss convinced Hareton, I can not tell ; he was 
very carefiil, for some minutes, that his face should not be seen : 
and when he did raise it, he was sadly puzzled where to turn 
his eyes. 

Catherine employed herself in wrapping a handsome book 
neatly in white paper ; and having tied it with a bit of ribbon, 
and addressed it to " Mr. Hareton Eamshaw," she desired me 
to be her embassadress, and convey the present to its destined 
recipient. 

" And tell him, if he'll take it, I'll come and teach him to 
read it right," she said. " and, if he refuse it, I'll go up stairs, 
and never tease him again." 

I carried it, and repeated the message, anxiously watched by 
my employer. Hareton would not open his fingers, so I laid it 
on his knee. He did not stiike it off, either. I returned to my 
work : Catherine leaned her head and arms on the table, till she 
heard the slight rustle of the covering being removed ; then she 
stole away, and quietly seated herself beside her cousin. He 
trembled, and his face glowed — all his rudeness and all his 
surly harshness had deserted him — be could not summon cour- 
age, at fii*8t, to utter a syllable, in reply to her questioning look, 
and lier murmured petition, 



270 WUTHEEINO HEIGHT 8. 

" Say you forgive me, Hareton, do ! You can make me bo 
happy, by speaking that little word." He muttered something. 
" And you'll be my fiiend 1" added Catherine, interrogatively. 

" Nay ! you'll be ashamed of me every day of your life ; and 
the more, the more you know me, and I can not abide it." 

'* So you wcHi't be my friend 1" she said, smiling as sweet as 
honey, and creeping close up. 

I overheard no further distinguishable talk; but on looking 
round again, I perceived two such radiant countenances bent 
over the page of the accepted book, that I did not doubt the 
treaty had been ratified on both sides, and the enemies were 
thenceforth sworn allies. 

The work they studied was foil of costly pictures ; and those 
and their position had charm enough to keep them unmoved, till 
Joseph came home. He, poor man, was perfectly aghast at the 
spectacle of Catherine seated on the same bench with Hareton 
Eamshaw, leaning her hand on his shoulder ; and confounded 
at his favorite's endurance of her proximity. It affected him 
too deeply to allow an observation on the subject that night. 
His emotion was only revealed by the immense sighs he drew, 
as he solemnly spread his large Bible 6n the table, and overlaid 
it with dirty bank-notes from his pocket-book, the produce of 
the day's transactions. At length he summoned Hareton. 

" Tak' these in tub t' maister, lad," he said, " un bide theare ; 
aw's gang up tub my avm rahm. This hoile's norther mensful 
nor seemly fur us — we mun side aht, and seearch another!" 

" Come, Catherine," I said, " we must ' side out,' too — ^I've 
done my ironing, are you ready to go 1" 

" It is not eight o'clock !" she answered, rising unwillingly. 
" Hareton, I'll leave this book upon the chimney-piece, and I'll 
bring you some more to-morrow." 

''Ony books ut yah leave, aw shall tak' intuh th' hahse," 
said Joseph, " un' it 'uU be mitch if yah find 'em agean ; soa, 
yah muh plase yourseln !" 

Cathy mreatened that his library shoiild pay for hers ; and, 
smiling as she passed Hareton, went singing up-staira, lighter 
of heait, I venture to say, than ever she had been under that 
roof; except, perhaps, during her earliest visits to Linton. 

The intimacy, thus commenced, grew rapidly ; though it en- 
countered temporary interruptions. Eamshaw was not to be 
civilized with a vnsh ; and my young lady was no philosopher, 
and no paragon of patience ; but both their minds tending to 
the sanie point— one loving and desiring to esteem ; and the 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 271 

Other loving and desiiing to be esteemed — they contrived, in 
the end, to reach it. ^ 

You flee, Mr. Lockwood, it was easy enough to win Mrs. 
HeathcUff's heait; but now, I'm glad you did not try — ^the 
crown of all my wishes will be the union of those two ; I shall 
envy no one on tiietr wedding-day — theie won't be a happier 
woman than myself in England 1 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

On the morrow of that Monday, Eamshaw being sdll unaUe 
to follow his ordinary employments, and, therefore, remaining 
about the house, I speedily found it would be impracticable to 
retain my charge beside me, as heretofore. 

She got down staks before me, and out into the garden; 
where she had seen her cousin performing some easy work ; 
and when I went to bid them come to breakfast, I saw she had 
persuaded him to clear a large space of gp:ound from currant 
and gooseberry bushes, and ibey were busy planning together 
an importation of plants from the Grange. 

I was terrified at the devastation which had been accomplished 
in a brief-half hour ; the black currant trees were the apple of 
Joseph's eye, and she had just fixed her choice of a flower bed 
in the mid^ of them ! 

" There ! That will be all shown to the master," I exclaimed, 
** the minute it is discovered. And what excuse have you to offer 
for taking such liberties with liie garden % We shall have a 
fine explosion on the head of it : see if we don't ! Mr. Hare- 
ton, I wonder you should have no more wit than to go and 
make that mess at hei bidding \^ 

'*rd forgotten they were Joseph's," answered Eamshaw, 
rather puzzled, '< but 111 tell him I did it." 

We always ate our meals with Mr. Heathcliff. I held the 
mistress's post in making tea and carving; so I was indispensa- 
ble at table. Catherine usually sat by me; but to-day she 
stole nearer to Hareton, and I presently saw she would have no 
more discretion in her friendship than she had in her hostility. 

** Now, mind you don't talk with and notice your cousin too 
much," were my whispered instructicms as we entered the 
room; <'It will certainly annoy Mr. Heathcliff^ and he'll be 
mad at you both." 



873 WUTHKRINQ HEIGHTS. 

" I'm not going to/' she answered. 

The minute s^er, she had sidled to him, and was sticking 
primroses in his plate of porridge. He dared not speak to her, 
there ; he dared hardly look ; and yet she went on teasing, till he 
twice was on the point of being provoked to laogh ; apd I frown- 
ed, and then she glanced toward the master, whose mind was 
occupied on other subjects than his company, as his countenance 
evinced, and she grew serious for an instant, scrutinizing him 
with deep gravity. Afterward she turned, and recommenced 
her nonsense ; at last Hareton uttered a smothered laugh. 

Mr. Heathcliff started ; his eyes rapidly surveyed our faces. 
Catherine met it with her accustomed look of nervousness, and 
yet defiance, which he abhorred. 

" It is well you are out of my reach ;" he exclaimed. '* What 
fiend possesses you to stare back at me, continually, with those 
infernal eyes 1 Down with them ! and don't remind me of your 
existence again. I thought I had cured you of laughing l" 

" It was me," muttered Hareton. 

" What do you say V* demanded the master* 

Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat t^e confes- 
sion. Mr. Heathcli£f looked at him a bit, and then silently re- 
sumed his breakfast, and his interrupted musing. 

We had nearly finished, and the two young people prudently 
shifted vrider asunder, so I anticipated no turther disturbance 
during that sitting ; when Joseph apj^ared at the door, reveal- 
ing by his quivenng lip and fimous eyes, that the outrage com- 
mitted on his precious shrubs was detected. 

He must have seen Cathy and her cousin about the spot, 
before he examined it, for while his jaws worked like those of a 
cow chewing its cud, and rendered his speech, difficult to imder- 
stand, he began : 

'^ Aw mun hev my wage, and aw mun goa ! Aw hed aimed 
tub dee, wheare aw'd sarved fur sixty year ; un' aw thowt aw'd 
lug my books up intuh t' garret, un' all my bits uh stuff, un' they 
sud hev t' kitchen tub theirseln ; fiir t' i^e uh quietness. It 
wur hard tub gie up my awn heartshun, but aw thowt aw catdd 
do that ! But, nan, shoo's taan my garden frough me, un' by 
th' heart ! Maister, aw can not stand it ! Yab muh bend tun 
th' yoak, an ye will. Aw noan used to't and an ow'd man 
doesn't sooin get used tub new barthens — aw'd rayther am my 
bite an' my sup wi' a hammer in th' road !" 

"Now, now^ *diot!'* interrupted Heathdiff, "cut it short! 
What's your grievance ? I'll interfere in no quarrels between 



WUTHBRINO HEIGHTS. 273 

you and Nelly. She may thrust you into the coal-hole for any 
thing I care." 

"It's noan Nelly !" answered Joseph. " Aw sudn't shift fur 
Nelly. Nasty, ill-nowt as shoo is. Thank God ! »hoo can not 
stale t'sowl uh nob'dy ! Shoo wer niver soa handsome, bud 
whet a body mud look at her 'baht winking. It's yon flaysome, 
graceless quean, ut's witched ahr lad, wi' her bold een, un her 
forrard ways — till. Nay ! I fair brusts my heart ! He's for- 
getten all aw done for him, un made on him, un' goan un' riven 
up a whole row ut t' grandest currant trees, i' t' garden !" and ^ 
here he lamented outright, unmanned by a sense of his bitter 
injuries, and Eamshaw's ingratitude and dangerous condition. 

" Is the fool drunk 1" asked Mi\ Heathcli£ " Hareton is it 
you he's finding fault with 1" 

" Iv'e pulled up two or three bushes," replied the young 
man, " but I'm going to set 'em ag^in." 

" And why have you pulled them up 1" said the master. 

Catherine wisely put m her tongue. 

" We wanted to plant some flowers there," she cried. " I'm 
the oidy person to blame, for I wished him to do it." 

" And who the devil gave you leave to touch a stick about 
the place 1" demanded her father-in-law, much surprised. 
" And who ordered you to obey herl" he added, turning to 
Hareton. The latter was speechless, his cousin replied — 

** You shouldn't grudge a few yards of earth for me to orna- 
ment, when you have taken all my land !" 

" Your land, insolent shit 1 you never had any !" said Heath- 
cliff. 

" And my money," she continued, returning his angry glare, 
and, meantime, biting a piece of crust, the renmant of her 
breakfast. 

" Silence!" he exclaimed. " Get done, and begone !" 

" And Hareton's land and his money," pursued the reckless 
thing. "Hareton and I are friends now; and I. shall tell him 
all about you I" 

The master seemed confounded a moment, he grew pale, 
and rose up, eyeing her all the while with an expression of 
mortal hate. 

" If you strike me, Hareton will strike you !" she said, " cj 
you may as well sit down." 

" If Hareton does not turn you out of the room I'll strike 
him to hell," thundered Heathcliff. " Damnable witch ! dare 
you pretend to rouse him against me ? Off with her i Do von 



274 WUTHEBINO HEIGHTS. 

hear 1 Fling her into the kitchen i I'll kill her, Ellen Dean^ 
if you let her come into my sight again !" 

Hareton tried, under hiB hreath, to persuade her to go. 

" Drag her away !" he cried savagely. " Are you staying to 
talk V* And he approached to execute his own command. 

" He^U not obey you, wicked man, any more V* said Cath- 
erine, " and he*ll soon detest you as much as I do !" 

" Wisht ! wisht I" muttered the young man reproachfully. 
" I will not hear you speak so to him. Have done !" 

" But you won't let him strike me V* she cried. 

" Come then !" he whispered earnestly. 

It was too late — ^Heathcliff had caught hold of her. 

" Now you go !" he said to Eamshaw. " Accursed witch ! 
this time she has provoked me when I could not bear it ; and 
1*11 make her repent it for ever !" 

He had his hand in her hair ; Hareton attempted to release 
the locks, entreating him not to hurt her, that once. His black 
eyes flashed, he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces, and 
I was just worked up to risk going to the rescue, when, of a 
sudden, his fingers relaxed, he shifted his grasp from her head, 
to her arm, and gazed intently in her face. Then he drew his 
hand over his eyes, stood a moment to collect himself, appa- 
rently, and turning to Catherine, said, with assumed calmness, 

'' You must learn to avoid putting me in a passion, or I shall 
really murder you some time! go with Mrs. Dean, and keep 
with her, and confine your insolence to her ears. As to Hare- 
ton Eamshaw, if I see him listen to you, I'll send him seeking 
his bread where he can get it ! your love wiH make him an 
outcast and a beggar. Nelly, take her; and leave me, all of 
you ! Leave me !" 

I led my young lady out ; she was too glad of her escape 
to resist ; the other followed, and Mr. Heathcliff had the room 
to himself till dinner. 

I had counseled Catharine to get hers up-stairs; but as soon 
as he perceived her vacant seat, he sent me to call her. He 
spoke to none of us, ate very little, and went out directly after 
ward, intimating that he should not return before evening. 

The two new finends established themselves in the house 
during his absence, where I heard Hareton sternly check his 
cousin, on her offering a revelation g£ her father-in-law's con- 
duct to his father. He said he would not suffer a word to be 
uttered to him in his disparagement ; if he were the devil, it 
did not aigni^. he would stand by him ; and he had rather 



W U T H ER I N 6 HEIGHTS. 275 

^16 would abuse himself as she used to, than begin on Mr. 
HeathcliC 

Catherine was waxing cross at this ; but he found means to 
make her hold her tongue, by asking how she would like kirn 
to speak ill of her father? and then she Gom{»:ehended that 
Eamshaw took the master's reputation home to himself: and 
was attached by ties stronger than reason could break-'-ehains, 
foi'ged by habit, whidi it would be cruel to attempt to loosen. 

She showed a good heart, thenc^OTth, in avoiding both com- 
plaints and expressions of antipathy concerning Heathdiff; 
and confessed to me her sorrow that she had endeavored to 
raise a bad spirit between him and Hareton — ^indeed, I do not 
believe she has ever breathed a syllable, in the latter's hearing, 
against her oppressor since. 

When this slight disagreement was bver, they were thick 
ag^in, and a» busy as possible in their several occupations of 

Supil and teacher. I came in to sit with them, alter I had 
one my work, and I felt so soothed and comforted to watch 
them, that I did not notice how time got on. You know they 
both appeared, in a measure, my chUdren : I had long been 
proud of one, and now I was sure the other would be a source 
of equal satis&ction. His honest, warm, and intelligent nature 
shook off rapidly the clouds of ignorance iand degradation in 
which it had been bred ; and Catherine's sincere commendations 
acted as a spur to hb industry. His brightening mind brightened 
his features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect I 
could hardly &ncy it the same-ikidividual I had beheld on the 
day I dbcovered my little lady at Wuthering Hdghts, after her' 
expedition to the Crags. 

While I admired, and they labored, dusk drew on, and with 
it returned the master. He came upon us quite unexpectedly, 
entering by the front way, and had a full view of the whdb 
three, ere we could raise our heads to glance at him. 

" Well," I reflected, " there was never a pleasanter, or more 
hcmnless sight ; and it will be a burning shame to scold them." 
The red firelight glowed on their two bonny heads, and revealed 
their faces, animated with the eager interest o£ children ; for 
though he was twenty^hree, and she eighteen, each had so 
much of novelty to feel and learn, that neither experienced nor 
evinced the sentiments of sober disenchanted maturity. 

They lifted their eyes together to encounter Mr. Heathcliff— 
perhaps you have never remarked that their eyes are precisely 
similar, and thev are those of Catherine Eamshaw. The 



t276 WUTHBRINO HEiaBTS. 

present Catherine has no other likeness to her except a breadth 
of forehead and a certain arch of the nostril, that makes her 
appear rather haughty, whether she will or not With Hare- 
ton the resemblance is carried fiirther, it is singular at all times-— 
then it was particularly striking ; because his senses were aleit 
and bis mental faculties wakened to unwonted activity. 

I supposed this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff: he 
walked to the hearth in evident agitation, but it quickly sub- 
sided as he looked at the young man ; or, I should say, altered 
its character, for it was there yet. 

He took the book from his hand, and glanced- at tbe open 
page, then returned it without any observation ; merely signing 
Catherine away. Her companion lingered very little behind 
her, and I was about to depart also, but he bid me sit stilL 

" It is a poor conclusion, is it not 1" he observed, having 
brooded a while on the scene he had just vritnessed. '* An ab- 
surd termination to my violent exertions 1 I get levers and 
mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be 
capable of working like Hercules, and when every thing is 
ready and in my power, I find the vrill to lift a slate off either 
roof has vanished ! My old enemies have not beaten me— now 
would be the precise time to revenge myself on their repre- 
sentatives. I could do it, and none could hinder me ; but 
where is the use 1 I don't care for striking — I can't take the 
trouble to raise my hand ! That sounds as if I had been la- 
boring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. 
It is far fi*om being the case. I have lost the faculty of enjoying 
their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing. 

" Nelly, there la a strange change approaching ; I'm in its 
shadow at present. I take so little interest in my daily life, 
that I hardly remember to eat and drink. Those two, who 
have left tiie room, are the only objects which retain a distinct 
material appearance to me; and that appearance causes tne 
pain, amounting to a?ony. About Tier 1 won't speak, and I 
don't desire to think ; Init I earnestly wish she were invisible — 
her presence invokes only maddening sensations. He moves 
me differently ; and yet if I could do it without seeming insane, 
I'd never see him again ! You'll perhaps think me rather in 
clined to become so," he added, making an effort to smile, " if 
I try to describe the thousand forms of past associations and 
ideas he awakens or embodies. But you'll not talk of w /lat I 
tell you, and my mind is so eternally secluded in itsei' it i^ 
temptinji: at last to turn it out to another. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 2T7 

'' Five minutes ago Hareton seemed a personification of my 
youth, not a human being. I felt to him in such a variety of 
ways, that it would have been impossible to have accosted him 
rationally. 

'< In the first place, his startling likeness to Catherine con- 
nected him fearfully with her. That, however, which you may 
suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination is actually 
the least ; for what is not connected with h^r to me 1 and what 
does not recall her 1 I can not look down to this floor but her 
features are shaped on the flags ! In every cloud, in every 
tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every 
object by day — I am surrounded with her image ! The most 
ordinary faces of men and women — my own features mock me 
vdth a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadfiil collection 
of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her ! 

" WeH, Hareton's aspect was the ghost of my inmiortal love, 
of my vnld endeavors to hold my right; my degradation, my 
pride, my happiness, and my anguish. But it is fi*enzy to re- 
peat these thoughts to you ; only it will let you know why, with 
a reluctance to be always alone, his society is no benefit, rather 
an aggravation of the constant torment I buSbt — and it partly 
contributes to render me regardless how he and his cousin go 
on together. I can give them no attention any more. 

" But what do you mean by a change, Mr. Heathcliff 1" I 
said, alarmed at his manner, though he was neither in danger 
of losing his senses nor dying ; according to my judgment, he 
was quite strong and healthy ; and as to his reason, fi*om child- 
hood he had a delight in dwelling on dark things, and enter- 
taining odd fancies : he might have had a monomania on the 
subject of his departed idol ; but on every other point his wits 
were as sound as mine. 

" I shall not know that till it comes,'* he said, ** I'm only half 
conscious of it now." 

" You have no feeling of illness, have you V* I asked. 

" No, Nelly, I have not," he answered. 

" Then, you are not afi^d of death 1" I pursued. 

" Afraid ] No !" he replied. " I have neither a fear, nor a 
presentiment, nor a hope of death. Why should 1 1 With my 
hard constitution, and temperate mode of living, and unperilous 
occupations, I ought to, and probably shaU remain abov^ ground, 
till there is scarcely a black hair on my head. And yet I can 
not continue in this condition ! I have to remind myself to 
brea'die — almost to remind my heart to beat ! And it is like 



278 WUTHBRIlfG HEIGHTS. 

bending back a stiff spring — it is by compulsion that I do the 
slightest act, not prompted by one thought ; and by compulsion 
that I notice any thing alive or dead, which is not associated 
with one universal idea. I have a single wish, and my whole 
being and faculties are yearning to attain it They have 
yearned toward it so long and so unwaveringly, that I'm con- 
vinced it will be reached — and soon — ^because it has devoured 
my existence. I am swallowed in the anticipation of its fulfill- 
ment My confessions have not relieved me— but, they may 
account for some otherwise unaccountable phases of humor 
which I show. Oh, God ! It's a long fight, I wish it were over !" 

He began to pace the room, muttering terrible things to 
himself, till I was inclined to believe, as be said Joseph did, 
that conscience had turned liis heart to an earthly helL I won- 
dered greatly how it would end. 

Though he seldom before had* revealed this state of >mind, 
even by looks, it was his habitual mood, I had noidbnbt : he 
asserted it himself— but not a soul, fi-om his geqerhh: bearing, 
would have conjectured the fact You did not, wh^n you saw 
him, Mr. Lockwood — and at the period of which I specJ^ he 
was just the same as then, only fonder of continued solitude, 
and perhaps still more laconic in company. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

For some days afber that evening Mr. Heathcliff shunned 
meeting us at meals ; yet he would not consent formally to 
exclude Hareton and Cathy. He had an aversion to yielding 
so completely to his feelings, choosing, rather, to absent himself; 
and eating once in twenty-four hours seemed sufficient suste- 
nance for him. 

One night, after the &mily were in bed, I heard him go down 
stairs, and out at the fi-ont door : I did not hear him re-enter, 
and in the morning I found he was still away. We were in 
April then, the weather was sweet and warm, the grass as green 
as showers and sun could make it, and the two dwarf apple 
trees nea;: the southern wall in full bloom. 

After breakfast, Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair; 
and sitting, with ray work, under the-fir-trees at the end of the 
house ; and she beguiled Hareton, who had recovered from his 



WUTHERIN6 HEIOHTB. 279 

accident, to dig and arrange her little garden, wbich was shifted 
to that comer by the influence of Joseph's complaints. 

I was comfortably revelling in the spring fragrance around, 
and the beautiful soil blue overh^id, when my young lady, who 
had run down near the gate, to procure some primrose roots 
fen: a border, returned only half laden, and informed us that 
Mr. Heathcliff was coming in. 

'' And he spoke to me," she added with a perplexed look. 

" What did he say V* asked Hareton. 

** He told me to begone as fast as I could," she answered. 
" But he looked so different from his usual look that I stopped 
a moment to stare at him." 

" How 1" he inquired. 

"Why, almost bright and cheerful — no, almost nothing — 
very much excited, and wild and glad !" she replied. 

" Night-walking amuses him, uien," I remarked, affecting a 
careless manner ; in reality as surprised as she was, and anxious 
to ascertain the truth of her statement, for to see the master 
looking glad would not be an every-day spectacle, I framed an 
excuse to go in. 

Heathdiff stood at the open door ; he was pale, and he trem- 
bled ; yet, certainly, he had a strange joyful glitter in his eyes, 
that altered the aspect of his whole face. 

" Will you have some breakfast V* I said. " You must be 
hungry, rambling about all night !" . 

'I I wanted to discover where he had been ; but I did not like 
to ask directly. 

" No, I'm not hungry," he answered, averting his head, and 
speaking rather contemptuously, as if he guessed I was trying 
to divine the occasion of^his good humor. 

I felt perplexed — I didn't know whether it were not a proper 
opportunity to offer a bit of admonition. 

" I don't think it right to wander out of doors," I observed, 
" instead of being in bed : it is not wise, at any rate, this moist 
season. I dare say you'll catch a bad cold, or a fever — ^you 
have something the matter with you now !" 

** Nothing but what I can bear," he replied, " and with the 
greatest pleasure, provided you'll leave me alone — get in, and 
don't annoy me." 

I obeyed ; and, in passing, I saw he breathed as fast as a cat. 

" Yes !" I reflected to myself, " we shall have a fit of illness 
I can not conceive what he has been doing !" 

That noouy he sat down to dinner with us, and received a 



280 W U T H B R I N^O HEIGHTS. 

heaped-up plate from my hands, as if he intended to make 
' amends for previous fasting. 

" I've neither cold nor fever, Nelly," he remarked, in allusion 
to my morning's speech. " And I'm ready to do justice to the 
food you give me." 

He took his knife and fork, and was going to commence 
eating, when the inclination appeared to become suddenly ex- 
tinct. He laid them on the table, looked eagerly toward the 
vnndow, then rose and went out. "We saw him walking, to and 
fix), in the garden, while we concluded our meal; and Eam- 
shaw said he'd go and ask why he would not dine ; be thought 
we had grieved him some way. 

" Wefl, is he coming 1" cried Catherine, when he returned. 

" Nay," he answered, " but he's not angry ; he seemed rare 
and pleased indeed ; only I made him impatient by speaking 
to him twice ; and then he bid me be off to you ; he wondered 
how I 'could want the company of any body else." 

I set his plate to keep warm on the fender ; and after an hour 
or two he re-entered, when the room was clear ; in no degree 
calmer — the same unnatural — ^it was unnatural — appearance of 
joy under his black brows ; the same bloodless hue ; and his 
teeth visible now and then in a kind of smile ; his fi-ame shiver- 
ing, not as one shivers with chill or weakness, but as a tight- 
stretched, cord vibrates — a strong thrilling rather than trem- 
bling. 

"I will ask what is the matter," I thought, " or who should V* 
And I exclaimed — " Have you heard any good news, Mi. 
Heathcliff 1 You look uncommonly animated." 

"Where should good news come from to me?" he said. 
" I'm animated vnth hunger ; and, seemingly, I must not eat," 

" Your dinner is here," I returned ; " why won't you get it ]" 

" I don't want it now," he muttered hastily. " I'll wait till 
supper. And, Nelly, once for all, let me beg you to warn 
Hareton and the other away from me. I wish to be troubled 
by nobody — I wish to have this place to myself." 

" Is there some new reason for this banishment ?" I inquired. 
" Tell me why you are so queer, Mr. Heathcliff] Wher6 were 
you last night ? I'm not putting the question through idle cu- 
riosity, but" — 

*' You are putting the question through very idle curiosity," 
he interrupted, with a laugh. " Yet I'll answer it. Last night 
I was on the threshold of hell. To-day I am within sight of my 
heaven — I have mv eves on it — ^hardlv three feet to sever me I 



V^rUTHEEING HEIGHTS: 281 

Aod now you'd better go. You'll neither see nor Hear any- 
thing to frighten you, if you refrain from prying." 

Having swept the hearth and wiped the table, I departed, 
more perplexed than ever. He did not quit the house again 
that afternoon, and no one intruded on his solitude till, at eight 
o'clock, I deemed it proper, though unsummoned, to carry a 
candle, and his supper to him. 

He was leaning against the ledge of an open lattice, but not 
looking out; his face was turned to the interior gloom. The 
fire had smoldered to ashes ; the room was filled with the damp, 
mild air of the cloudy evening; and so still, that not only the 
murmur of the beck down Gimmerton was distinguishable, but 
its ripples, and its gurgling over the pebbles, or through the 
lai'ge stones which it could not cover. 

I uttered an ejaculation of discontent at seeing the dismal 
grate, and commenced shutting the casements, one after an- 
other, till I came to his. 

" Must I close this ?" I asked, in order to rouse him, for he 
would not stir. 

The light flashed on his features, as I spoke. Oh, Mr. Lock- 
wood, I can not express what a terrible start I got, by the mo- 
mentary view I Those deep black eyes ! That smile, and ghast- 
ly paleness ! It appeared to me, not Mr. Heathclifl) but a goblin ; 
and, in my terror, I let the candle bend toward the wall, and it 
left me in darkness. 

" Yes, close it," he replied, in his familiar voice. " There, 
that is pure awkwardness ! Why did you hold the candle hori- 
zontally? Be quick, and bring another." 

I hurried out in a foolish state of dread, and said to Joseph— 

** The master wishes you to take him a light, and rekindle the 
fire." For I dare not go in myself again just then. 

Joseph rattled some fire into the sbovel, and went ;^ but he 
brought it back immediately, with the supper tray in his other 
hand, explaining that Mr. Heathcliff was going to bed, and he 
wanted nothing to eat till morning. 

We heard him mount the stairs directly ; he did not proceed 
to his ordinary chamber, but turned into that with the paneled 
bed — ^its window, as I mentioned before, is wide enough fi)r 
any body to get through, and it struck me that he plotted an- 
other midnight excursion, which he had rather we had no sus- 
picion of. 

" Is he a ghoul, or a vampire ]" I mused. I had read of 
such hideous, incarnate demons. And then, I set myself to re« 



282 WUTHERINO HEIGHTS. 

fleet how I had tended him in infancy; and watched him gron 
to youth ; and followed him almost through his whole course ; 
and what nonsense it was to yield to that sense of horror. 

" But, where did he come from, the little dark thing, harbor- 
ed by a good man to his banel" muttered superstition, as I 
dozed into unconsciousness. And I began, half dreaming, to 
weary myself with imagining some fit parentage for him ; and 
repeating my waking meditations, I tracked his existence over 
aguin, with grim variations ; at last, picturing his death and 
fiineral; of which, all I can remember is, being exceedingly 
vexed at having the task of dictatine an inscription for his monu- 
ment, and consulting the sexton about it ; and, as he had no 
surname, and we could not tell his age, we were obliged to 
content ourselves with the single word, "Heathcliff." That 
came true— we were. If you enter the kirkyard, you'll read on 
his headstone only that, and the date of his death. Dawn re- 
stored me to common sense. I rose, and went into the garden, 
as soon as I could see, to ascertain if there were any foot-marks 
under his window. There were none. 

** He has staid at home," I thought, " and he'll be all right 
to-day!" 

I prepared breakfast for the household, as was my usual 
custom, but told Hareton and Catherine to get theirs ere the 
master came down, for he lay late. They preferred taking it 
out of doors, under the trees, and I set a little table to accom 
modate them. 

On my re-entrance, I found Mr. Heathcliff below. He and 
Joseph were convereing about some farming business; he gave 
clear, minute directions concerning the matter discussed, but 
he spoke rapidly, and turned his head continually aside, and 
had the same excited expression, even more exaggerated. 

When Joseph quitted the room, he took his seat in the place 
he generally chose, and I put a basin of coffee before him. He 
drew it nearer, and then rested his arms on the table, and looked 
at the opposite wall, as I supposed, surveying one particular 
portion, up and down, with glittering, restless eyes, and with 
such eager interest, that he stopped breathing, during half a 
minute together. 

" Come, now," I exclaimed, pushing some bread against his 
hand. " Eat and drink that while it is hot. It has been wait- 
ing near an hour." 

He didn't notice me, and yet he smiled. I'd rather hdve 
seen him gnash bis teeth than smile so. 



WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 283 

" Mr. Heathcliflf ! master !" I cried. " Don% for God's sake, 
stare as if you saw an unearthly vision." 

" Don't, for God's sake, shout so loud," he replied. " Turn 
round, and tell me, are we by ourselves V 

" Of course," was my answer, " of course we are !" 

Still I involuntarily obeyed him, as if I were not quite sure. 
With a sweep of his Hand, he cleared a vacant space in front 
among the breakfast things, and leaned forward to gaze more 
at his ease. 

Now I perceived he was not looking at the wall, for when I 
regarded nim alone, it seemed, exactly, that he gazed at some- 
thing within two yards distance. And, whatever it was, it 
communicated, apparently, both pleasure and pain, in exquisite 
extremes; at least the anguished yet raptured expression of his 
countenance suggested that idea. 

The fancied object was not fixed either ; his eyes pursued it 
with unwearied vigilance, and, even in speaking to me, were 
never weaned away. 

I vainly reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food. 
If he stirred to touch any thing m compliance with my entreaties 
— if he stretched his hand out to get a piece of bread — his fingers 
clenched before they reached it, and remained on the table, for 
getful of their aim. 

I sat, a model of patience, trying to attract his absorbed at- 
tention fcom its engrossing speculation, till he grew irritable and 
got up, asking why I would not allow him to have his own time 
in taking his meals 1 and saying that on the next occasion I 
needn't wait — I might set the things down and go. Having 
uttered these words, he lefl the house, slowly sauntered down 
the garden path, and disappeared through the gate. 

The hours crept anxiously by : another evenmg came. I did 
not retire to rest till late, and when I did I could not sleep. He 
returned after midnight, and, instead of going to bed, shut him- 
self into the room beneatb. I listened and tossed about, and 
finally dressed and descended. It was too irksome to lie up 
there, harassing my brain with a hundred idle misgivings. 

I distinguished Mr. Heathcliff's step, restlessly measuring the 
floor ; and he frequently broke the silence by a deep inspiration, 
resembling a groan. He muttered detached words also; the 
only one I could catch was the name of Catherine, coupled 
with some wildjterm of endearment or suffering, and spoken as 
one would speak to a person present — ^low and earnest, and 
wrung firom the depth of his souL 



284 WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 

I had DOt courage to walk straight into the apartment ; but I 
desired to divert him from bis revery, and therefore fell foul of 
the kitchen fire ; stirred it and began to scrape the cinders. It 
drew bim forth sooner than I expected. He opened the door 
'mmediately, and said — 

" Nelly, come here— is it morning 1 Come in with your light" 

"It is striking four," I answered; "you want a candle to 
take up-stairs — ^you might have lighted one at this fire." 

"No, I don't wish to go up-stairs," he said. " Come in, and 
kindle me a fire, and do any thing there is to do about the room." 

" I must blow the coals red first, before I can carry any," I 
replied, getting a chair and the bellows. 

He roamed to and fro, meantime, in a state approaching dis- 
traction, his heavy sighs succeeding each other so thick as to 
leave no space for common breathing between. 

" When day breaks, I'll send for Green," he said ; " I wish to 
make some legal inquiries of him, while I can bestow a thought 
on those matters, and while I can act calmly. I have not 
written my will yet, and how to leave my property I can not 
determine ! I wish I could annihilate it firom the faca of the 
earth." 

" I would not talk so, Mr. Heathcliff," I interposed. " Let 
your will be a while— you'll be spared to repent of your many in- 
justices yet ! I never expected that your nerves would be dis- 
ordered-^they are, at present, marvelously so, however; and 
almost entirely through your own fault. The way you've passed 
these three last days might knock up a Titan. Do take some , 
food and some repose. You need only look at yourself in a 
glass to see how you require both. Your cheeks are hollow 
and your eyes bloodshot, like a person starving with hunger and 
going blind with loss of sleep." 

" It is not my fault, that I can not eat or rest," he replied. 
" I assure you it is through no settled designs. I'll do both as 
soon as I possibly can. But you might as well bid a man 
struggling in the water, rest within arms-length of the shore ! I 
must reach it first, and then I'll rest. Well, never mind Mr. 
Green ; as to repenting of my injustices, I've done no injustice, 
and I repent of nothing. I'm too happy, and yet I'm not happy 
enough. My soul's bliss kills my body, but does not satisfy it- 
self." 

" Happy, master V* I cried. " Strange happiness ! If you 
would hear me without being angry, I might offer some advice 
that would make you happier." 



WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 285 

" What is that V he asked. " Give it." 

" You are aware^ Mr. Heathcliff," I said, " that from the time 
you were thirteen years old, you have lived a selfish, unchrist- 
ian life : and probably hardly had a Bible in your hands, during 
all that period. You must have forgotten the contents of the 
book, and you may not have space to search it now. Could it 
be hurtful to send for some one— some minister of any denomi- 
nation, it does not matter which, to explain it, and show you 
how very far you have erred from its precepts, and how unfit 
you will be for its heaven, unless a change takes place before 
you die?" 

" I'm rather obliged than angry, Nelly," he said, "for you re- 
mind me of the manner that I desire to be buried in. It is to 
be carried to the churchyard in the evening. You and Hareton 
may, if you please, accompany me — and mind, particularly, to 
notice that the sexton obeys my directions concerning the two 
coffins ! No minister need come ; nor need any thing be said 
over me. I tell you, I have nearly attained my heaven ; and 
that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me !" 

" And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast, and 
died by that means, and they refused to bury you in the pre- 
cincts of the kirk 1" I said, shocked at his godless indifference. 
" How would you like it ]" 

" They won't do that," he replied, " if they did, you must 
have me removed secretly; and if you neglect it, you shall 
prove, practically, that the dead are not annihilated !" 

As soon as he heard the other members of the family stirring, 
he retired to his den, and I breathed freer. But in the after 
noon, while Joseph and Hareton were at their work, he came 
into the kitchen again, and, with a wild look, bid me come and 
sit in the house — ^he wanted somebody with him. 

I declined, telling him plainly that his .strange talk and man 
ner fiightened me^ and I had neither the neiTO nor the will to 
be his companion alone. 

" I believe you think me a fiend !" he said, with his dismal 
laugh, " something too horrible to live under a decent roof!" 

Then turning to Catherine, who was there, and who drew 
behind me at his approach, he added, half sneeringly. 

" Will you come, chuck V* 1*11 not hurt you. No ! to you, 
I've made myself worse than the devil. Well, there is one who 
won't shrink from my company ! By God ! she's relentless. 
Oh, damn it ! It's imutterably too much for flesh and blood to 
bear, even mine." 



286 WUTHERINO HEIOHTS. 

He solicited the society of no one more. At dusk he went 
into his chamber. Through the whole night, and far into the 
morning, we heard him groaning and murmuring to himself 
Hareton was anxious lo enter, but I bid him fetch Mr. Kenneth, 
and he should go in and see him. 

When he came, and I requested admittance and tiied to open 
the door, I found it locked ; and HeathcHfiT bid us be damned. 
He was better, and would be left alone; so the doctor went 
away. 

The following evening was very wet, indeed it poured down 
till day-dawn ; and, as I took my morning walk round the 
house, I obsei*ved the master's window swinging open, and the 
rain driving straight in. 

" He can not be in bed," I thought, " those showers would 
drench him through ! He must be either up or out. But I'll 
make no more ado, I'll go boldly, and look !" 

Having succeeded in obtaining entrance with another, key, I 
ran to unclose the panels, for the chamber was vacant — quickly 
pushing them aside, I peeped in. Mr. Heathcliff was there-^ 
laid on his back. His eyes met mine, so keen and fierce that I 
started ; and then he seemed to smile. 

I could not think him dead — ^but his face and throat were 
washed with rain ; the bed-clothes dripped, and he was per- 
fectly still. The lattice, flapping to and fro, had grazed one 
hand that rested on the sill — ^no blood trickled from the broken 
skin, and when I put my fingers to it I could doubt no more- 
he was dead and stark ! 

I hasped the window ; I combed his long, black hair from 
his forehead ; I tried to close his eyes — to extinguish, if pos- 
sible, that frightful, life-like exultation, before any one else 
beheld it. They would not shut— they seemed to sneer' at my 
attempts, and his parted lips and sharp, white teeth sneered too ! 
Taken with another fit of cowardice, I cried out for Joseph. 
Joseph shuffled up, and made a noise, but resolutely refused to 
meddle with him. 

" Th* divil's harried off his soul," he cried, " and he muh hev 
his carcass in tub t' bargin, for ow't aw care ! Ech ! what a 
wicked un he looks, grinning at death !" and the old sinner 
grinned in mockery. 

I thought he intended to cut a caper round the bed ; but 
suddenly composing himself, he fell on his knees, and raised his 
hands, and returned thanks that the lawful master and the 
ancient stock were restored to their rights. 



WUT II BRING HEIGHTS. 287 

I felt stunned by the awful event ; and my men\ory unavoid- 
ably recurred to former times with a sort of oppressive sadness. 
But poor Hareton, the most wronged, was the only one that 
really suffered much. He sat-by the corpse all night, weeping 
in bitter earnest. He pressed its hand, and kissed the sarcastic, 
savage face that every one else shrank from contemplating ; and 
bemoaned him with that strong grief which springs naturally 
from a generous heart, though it be tough as tempered steel. 

Kenneth was perplexed to pronounce of what disorder the 
master died. I concealed the fact of his having swallowed 
nothing for four days, fearing it might lead to trouble ; tod then, 
I am persuaded, he did not not abstain on purpose : it was the 
consequence of his strange illness, not the cause. 

We buried him, to the scandal of the whole neighborhood, 
as he had wished. Eamshaw and I, the sexton, and six men to 
carry the coffin, comprehended the whole attendance. 

' The six men departed when they had let it down into the 
grave : we stayed to see it covered. Hareton, with a streaming 
face, dug green sods, and laid them over the brown mold him- 
self. At present it is as smooth and verdant as its companion 
mounds — and I hope its tenant sleeps as soundly. But the 
country folks, if you asked them, would swear on their Bibles 
that he taalks. There are those who speak to having met him 
near the church, and on the moor, and even within this house. 
Idle tales, you'll say, and so say 1. Yet that old man by the 
kitchen fire affirms he has seen ** two on 'em'' looking out of his 
chamber window, on every rainy night, since his death— and an 
odd thing happened to me about a month ago. 

I was going to the Grange one evening— -a dark evening 
threatening thimder — and, just at the turn of the Heights, I en 
countered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs before him. 
He was crying terribly, and I supposed the lambs were skittish, 
and would not be guided. 

" What is the matter, my little man ]" I asked. 

" They's Heathcliff and a woman yonder, under t' nab," h^ 
blubbered, " un' aw damut pass 'era." 

I saw nothing ; but neither the sheep nor he would go on, so 
I bid him take the road lower down. He probably raised th6 
phantoms from thinking, as he traversed the moors alone, on 
the nonsense he had heard his parents and companions repeat ; 
yet, still, I don't like being out m the dark now, and I don't like 
being left by myself in this grim house. I can not help it ; 1 
shall be glad when they leave it, and shift to the Grange ! 



288 WUTHERIN6 HEIGHTS. 

** They are going to the Grange, then V* I said. 

" Yes," answered Mrs. Dean, " as soon as they are married ; 
and that will be on New Year's day." 

" And who will live here then V 

•* Why, Joseph will take care of the house, and, perhaps, a 
lad to keep him company. They will live in the kitchen, and 
the rest will "be shut up." 

" For the use of such ghosts as choose to inhabit it," I observed. 

" No, Mr. Lockwood," said Nelly, shaking her head. " I 
believe the dead are at peace, but it is not right to speak of 
them with levity." 

At that moment the garden gate swung to ; the ramblers 
were returning. 

" Thei/ are afraid of nothing," I grumbled, watohing their 
approach through the window. " Together they would brave 
Satan and all his legions." 

As they stepped upon the door-stones, and halted to take a 
last look at the moon, or, more correctly, at each other, by her 
light, I felt irresistibly impelled to escape them again ; and, 
pressing a remembrance into the hands of Mrs. Dean, and disre- 
garding her expostulations at my rudeness, I vanished through 
the kitchen, as niey opened the house-door ; and so should have 
confirmed Joseph in his opinion of his fellow-servant's gay indis- 
cretions, had he not, fortunately, recognized me for a respectable 
character, by Xhe>sweet ring of a sovereign at his feet. 

My walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the direction 
of the kirk. When beneath' its walls, I perceived decay had 
made progress, even in seven months — many a window showed 
black gaps deprived of glass ; and slates jutted off, here and 
there, beyond the right line of the roof, to be gradually worked 
off in coming autumn storms. 

I sought, and soon discovered, the three head-stones on the 
slope next the moor — the middle one, gray, and half buried in 
the heath — Edgar Linton's only harmonized by the turf and 
moss creeping up its foot— Heathcliff's still bare. 

I lingered round them, under that benign sky ; watched the 
moths fluttering among the heath and harebells; listened tc 
the sofb wind breathing through the grass ; and wondered how 
any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers far the sleepers 
in that quiet earth. 

THE END. 



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